The Rockefeller Institute has been studying the opioid epidemic on the ground in rural New York for nearly two years, including conducting well over 100 interviews with people on the front lines of the crisis. Among other challenges, it has identified staffing shortages as an obstacle to successful treatment and recovery in many communities. Higher education can help meet the need for qualified addiction treatment specialists, including SUNY Empire’s first-of-its-kind bachelor’s degree in Addiction Studies, which aims to help address the urgent need for qualified substance-use disorder treatment specialists in New York state and around the country. Enrollment will begin in the spring of 2020.

Robert J. Spitzer is a distinguished service professor and chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland. Spitzer is also a member of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, a multi-state research coalition coordinated by the Rockefeller Institute. Spitzer is the author of fifteen books, including five on gun policy, most recently Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights (Oxford University Press 2015).