Dr. Dunn has been working in the field of OUD since 2005.
As a teenager growing up in rural Central New York in the late 1990's, Dr. Dunn watched several close friends be introduced to opioid use through prescription medications. Many of these friends developed opioid misuse and eventually opioid use disorder. This prompted Dr. Dunn's life-long passion for understanding motivations for opioid use, identifying methods to prevent the onset of OUD, helping to improve treatments for OUD, and exploring new methods for managing pain and reducing opioid reliance.
Dr. Dunn has now been the Principal Investigator on projects totaling more than $15 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health and is an author on more than 80 peer-reviewed publications in the area of substance use and opioid use disorder. She also regularly consults with companies seeking to develop new medications for the treatment of OUD.
Email: kdunn9@jhmi.edu
Current Academic Positions
- Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, JHU School of Medicine
- Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, JHU School of Public Health
- Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, JHU
Expertise
- Phase II and III Randomized Controlled Trials (>20 RCTs for opioid, alcohol, and tobacco)
- Human Abuse Potential Laboratory Testing
- Opioid Withdrawal; detection, measurement, and exploring mechanisms
- Opioid Overdose: Brief (20 minute) web-based intervention for opioid overdose with companion validated overdose knowledge risk scale
- Crowdsourcing data about OUD
- Technology based methadone treatment management
- Comorbid pain (including quantitative sensory testing), insomnia, infectious diseases
Education
- 2002, BA, Psychology, Oswego State University
- 2002, BA, Philosophy, Oswego State University
- 2005, MS, Applied Biopsychology, University of New Orleans
- 2009, Ph.D., Human Behavioral Pharmacology/Experimental Psychology, University of Vermont
- 2011, Postdoctoral Training, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- 2019, MBA, Healthcare Management, Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business
Current Service Positions
- Chair, Convention Program Committee, College on the Problems of Drug Dependence
- Chair, Board of Convention Affairs, American Psychological Association
- Board of Directors, College on the Problems of Drug Dependence
- President, Division on Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse, American Psychological Association
- Chair, SBIR Heal NIH/CSR Grant Committee
- Editor, Oxford Handbook on Opioids and Opioid Use Disorder
- Co-Editor, Jounal of Addiction Medicine
- Co-editor, Frontiers of Psychiatry, Special Collection on Opioid and Methamphetamine Co-use
- Editorial Board Member, Addictive Behaviors
- Editorial Board Member, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
- Editorial Board Member, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Awards
- Young Psychopharmacologist Award, Division 28 of the American Psychological Association
- Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award, College on the Problems of Drug Dependence
- Fellow, American Psychological Association