Jennifer S. De La Rosa, PhD

Dr. De La Rosa is director of strategy at the Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction and an early stage Investigator. Her core research activity focuses on addressing behavioral health workforce challenges and providing training and education that is responsive to practitioner needs.

She leads several initiatives at Family and Community Medicine, including PeerWORKS, a HRSA-funded paraprofessional training program that certifies people with lived experience of substance use disorder to work as peer recovery support specialists, supporting others in their recovery journeys. This program recently received the U of A's 2024 Team Award for Excellence. Dr. De La Rosa directs the evaluation on Project FUTRE, a $2.2M HRSA OIFSP project that develops the family support specialist workforce to meet the needs of children and families impacted by opioid use disorder.

She is the principal investigator on a partnership with the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation to survey Arizona primary care doctors about their screening practices for patients with substance use disorder, including additional screening for a history of trauma, mental health disorders and social determinants of health. She also directs the evaluation for a Responsible Adult Cannabis Education Program for the state of Arizona. This project develops cannabis-related CMEs and CEUs for interprofessional training and workforce development in the health sciences.

Dr. De La Rosa's peer-reviewed research and expert scientific interviews have been featured in periodicals such as AARP: The Magazine; The Washington Post; CNN; Yahoo News; MSN.com; Physician’s Weekly; Monitor, the professional magazine of the American Psychological Association; SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio Reports; and Arizona Public Media. Two of Dr. De La Rosa's recent publications are referenced in the CDC National Center for Health Statistics' 2024 Data Brief on Chronic Pain and High-Impact Pain.