Mark Zehner joins the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention

Mark Zehner, formerly an Associate Researcher at the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS), has accepted a new position at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI). His new position began on April 24.

The new position is a homecoming of sorts for Mark, who worked as a researcher at UW-CTRI for more than a decade before joining CHESS to work with NIATx in 2007. At NIATx, Mark has played an integral role in several projects, including the Strengthening Treatment Access and Retention-State Initiative, NIATx Spread and Sustainability, and the NIATx Ohio Buprenorphine Implementation Study. He also oversaw a portfolio of NIATx projects focused on improving treatment access and retention for special populations, such as pregnant and parenting women, those with HIV/AIDS, and people involved in the criminal justice system. 

“Mark has contributed to many successful projects and will be missed,” says NIATx Deputy Director Todd Molfenter. “Fortunately, he will be continuing to apply his research skills to address addiction-related issues.

At UW-CTRI, Zehner will direct a research program through a series of National Cancer Institute studies that will explore the latest innovations to help primary care clinics deliver comprehensive tobacco dependence treatments to patients who smoke.

“The need for systematic, accessible and ongoing management of the condition is the same, but the prevalent setting for treatment is not specialty clinics but primary care,” says Mark, noting the similarities between his NIATx experiences and his new role.  “I’m really looking forward to the opportunity this new research provides to apply change management concepts, implementation and spread techniques, and other systems engineering models to hone in, improve and accelerate the spread of state-of-the-art tobacco cessation treatments to unprecedented levels of systematic delivery and management in healthcare settings.  More than 40 million American smokers and their families need it.”