Just over a week since the tragic death of actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman from an apparent heroin overdose, the nation and world continue to try to understand what happened and why.
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is home to one of the foremost experts in the area of substance abuse and health disparities. Jim Hall is an Epidemiologist & Co-director, NSU's Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse, Institute for the Study of Human Services, Health and Justice.
For the past 29 years, Hall has tracked patterns and trends of substance abuse in Florida as the state's representative on the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Community Epidemiology Work Group. Hall compiles local drug abuse data including hospitalizations, deaths, addiction treatment, prevalence, and drug pricing, strength and abuse trends, and works closely with local drug abuse coalitions, law enforcement, and other community organizations. Hall's work focuses on converting research about emerging drug abuse problems into community-based solutions. He has represented the United States at several Organization of American States conferences over the past several years and is assisting a U.S. government project in the development of a substance abuse epidemiology work group in Iraq.
He served as the executive director of Up Front Drug Information and Education Center in Miami from 1982-2012, and was the recipient of the 2010 Path of Public Health Award for Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Services from Florida International University. He was recently named to the Technical Expert Panel on the Community Early Warning and Monitoring System by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Hall has extensive experience working with local, state and national media (print and broadcast) – and understands how to help reporters with their stories.
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