Robert M. Anthenelli, M.D. • Director
Dr. Anthenelli is a Professor and the former Interim Chair, Executive Vice Chair, and Vice Chair for Veterans Affairs, respectively, in the UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry where he directs the Pacific Treatment and Research Center (Pac-TARC).
He earned his baccalaureate degree from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internship in internal medicine at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, and his psychiatry residency training at UCSD and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Additional post-doctoral training included a two-year fellowship in addiction psychiatry research funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Anthenelli was formerly a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine where he founded and directed the Center for Treatment, Research & Education in Addictive Disorders and the Addiction Sciences Division. He also directed the Substance Dependence Program at the Cincinnati VA which was awarded the Department of Veterans Affairs, Undersecretary for Health’s Award as a Clinical Program of Excellence in Substance Abuse and was selected as a National Tobacco Cessation Clinical Resource Center.
Dr. Anthenelli has been selected among the Best Doctors and Top Psychiatrists in America. He is an Associate Editor of Current Psychiatry and serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Addiction Medicine and Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The overarching theme of Dr. Anthenelli’s research is to develop improved treatments for tobacco, alcohol and stimulant dependence by better understanding the neurobiology of the disorders. He is the author or co-author of over 250 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and published abstracts. Support for his research is provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, University of California Office of the President’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, and various industry sponsors.
He earned his baccalaureate degree from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internship in internal medicine at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, and his psychiatry residency training at UCSD and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Additional post-doctoral training included a two-year fellowship in addiction psychiatry research funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Anthenelli was formerly a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine where he founded and directed the Center for Treatment, Research & Education in Addictive Disorders and the Addiction Sciences Division. He also directed the Substance Dependence Program at the Cincinnati VA which was awarded the Department of Veterans Affairs, Undersecretary for Health’s Award as a Clinical Program of Excellence in Substance Abuse and was selected as a National Tobacco Cessation Clinical Resource Center.
Dr. Anthenelli has been selected among the Best Doctors and Top Psychiatrists in America. He is an Associate Editor of Current Psychiatry and serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Addiction Medicine and Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The overarching theme of Dr. Anthenelli’s research is to develop improved treatments for tobacco, alcohol and stimulant dependence by better understanding the neurobiology of the disorders. He is the author or co-author of over 250 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and published abstracts. Support for his research is provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, University of California Office of the President’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, and various industry sponsors.
Benjamin McKenna, Ph.D. • Associate Director
Dr. McKenna is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry and a Staff Psychologist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System where he serves as Coordinator for the Mood Disorders Clinic.
He received his B.S. in Psychology from the University of Arizona. In 2011, he earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Neuropsychology from the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology and completed a predoctoral internship at the University of Arizona Medical Center. Following his doctoral training, Dr. McKenna completed a Veterans Affairs Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment before joining the Translational Methamphetamine and AIDS Research Center on a NIDA-funded T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship for Training in Research on Addictions in Interdisciplinary NeuroAIDS. Dr. McKenna joined Pac-TARC in 2015. His overarching research interests are to better understand 1) the neurobiology and associated cognitive functions impacted by substances of abuse, and 2) interactions between addictions and other mental illnesses. His research interests are aimed at improving treatments in patients with comorbid mental health and substance use diagnoses. Sierra Miller • Laboratory Assistant
Sierra earned her B.A. in Psychology at the University of Vermont (UVM). During her time at UVM, Sierra conducted a correlational study on racial behavior and racial education for her honors thesis and worked in several research labs analyzing archival, self-report, and experimental data in the field of Psychology.
Upon graduation in 2022, Sierra joined Pac-TARC as a Laboratory Assistant to work on a federally-funded study exploring potential sex differences in stress reactivity and drug sensitivity. Shirley Feng • Student Intern
Shirley is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her general research interests are neuroimaging, functional connectivity, alcohol or substance use disorder, internalizing disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. She is writing an honor thesis about elevated repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in patients with internalizing disorders and functional connectivity, and a senior thesis with undecided topic.
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Xia Li, M.D. Ph.D • Study Physician
Dr. Li is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. She previously rotated through Pac-TARC when she was an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the UCSD Department of Psychiatry exploring a career in psychiatry. She returned to the lab for an elective as a 4th year Psychiatry resident.
Dr. Li had an eight-year career in academic medicine in China before becoming a post-doctoral research fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)/NIH. She then joined Dr. Athina Markou’s research group at UCSD, eventually becoming an independent investigator and faculty member in the Department. She has been awarded grants from NIH and the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) of the State of California. Her research focuses on mechanism-based medication development for the treatment of drug addiction. She has extensively explored neurochemical mechanisms underlying drug-taking and drug-seeking behaviors, focusing on the role of various neurotransmitter systems and investigating novel compounds as potential medications for substance use disorders. Matine Rubin • Staff Research Associate
Ms. Rubin is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Statistics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). Her studies focus on public health and biostatistics. After completing her baccalaureate degree, she plans to apply to medical school.
In addition to her work at Pac-TARC, she is also involved in biological research based at UCR that examines the effects of smoking in ex vivo and stem-cell models. |
