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Karen Chartier

Associate professor

Email: kgchartier@vcu.edu
Phone: (804) 828-2865
Pronouns: She/her

Karen Chartier, Ph.D., studies social, genetic and environmental factors that influence alcohol misuse and alcohol use disorder, and how these relationships manifest across racial, ethnic and cultural groups. Her research seeks to optimize the use of family health history information to identify at-risk young adults prior to the development of advanced alcohol problems.

Chartier’s research agenda extends across disciplines. She is the director of the Institute for Research on Behavioral and Emotional Health and the Spit for Science Registry, two university-level initiatives that bring together faculty, trainees and students from across campuses and units at VCU to advance the scientific understanding of substance use and misuse and mental well-being. She is also a faculty member with the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics.

Chartier was trained as a macro social work practitioner. She previously worked as a community organizer and then a project coordinator and evaluator on intervention studies that examined culturally relevant substance use treatment and prevention programs for African American and Latinx communities. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine’s Alcohol Research Center in the Department of Psychiatry.

Before VCU, Chartier worked at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Dallas Regional Campus, where she was on the research faculty and conducted epidemiologic studies on alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems and treatment utilization in U.S. racial/ethnic groups. She was also affiliated with the Texas Node of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Clinical Trials Network at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Areas of expertise

  • Gender
  • Health
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Substance Misuse and Addictive Behaviors

Education and credentials

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Connecticut
Ph.D., University of Connecticut
M.S.W., University of Connecticut
B.A., Clark University

View Karen G. Chartier's curriculum vitae.

Author: Chartier, K. G.
Topic: Gender, Health, Race and Ethnicity, Substance Misuse and Addictive Behaviors

Work

Selected publications

Chartier, K. G.1, Kendler, K. S.1 (1co-first authors), Ohlsson, H., Sundquist, K. & Sundquist, J. (2023). Triangulation of evidence on immigration and rates of alcohol use disorder in Sweden: Evidence of acculturation effects. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 47(1), 104-115.

Chartier, K. G., Bares, C., Prom-Wormley, E., Blondino, C., Miles, K., Lee, A. G., & Karriker-Jaffe, K. J. (2022). Effects of family history of alcohol problems on alcohol consumption: Stronger for medically underserved men. Preventive Medicine, 161.

Hicks, T. A., Chartier, K. G., Buckley, T. D.*, Reese, D.*, Spit for Science Working Group, Vassileva, J., Dick, D.M., Amstadter, A. B., Peterson, R. E., & Moreno, O. (2022). Divergent changes: Abstinence and higher-frequency substance use increase among racial/ethnic minority young adults during the COVID-19 global pandemic, 48(1), 88-99. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. (Special Issue on Risk, Resilience and Thriving among Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Underserved Populations)

Chartier, K.G., Martinez, P., Cummings, C.*, Riley, B.P., & Karriker-Jaffe, K.J. (2021). Recruiting for diversity: A pilot test for a national alcohol survey with a mail-in genetic data collection. Journal of Community Genetics, 12(3), 459-468.

Tam, C., Karriker-Jaffe, K.J., & Chartier, K.G. (2020). Chapter 16: Understanding addictive behavior from a human diversity perspective. In A.L. Begun & M.M. Murray (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of social work and addictive behaviors (pp. 262-281). London: Routledge.

Bares, C., Chartier, K.G., Karriker-Jaffe, K., Aliev, F., Mustanski, B., & Dick, D. (2020). Exploring how family and neighborhood stressors influence genetic risk for adolescent conduct problems and alcohol use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(7), 1365-1378.

Chartier, K.G., Tiarsmith*, C., O'Shea*, T., Kendler, K.S., & Dick, D.M. (2019). College students’ use of strategies to hide facial flushing: A target for alcohol education. Journal of American College Health.

Chartier, K., Karriker-Jaffe, K., Cummings, C.*, & Kendler, K. (2017). Environmental influences on alcohol use: Informing research on the joint effect of genes and the environment research in diverse U.S. populations. The American Journal on Addictions, 26(5), 446-460. (Featured article at 2018 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry meeting)

Chartier, K.G., Caetano, R., Miller, K., & Harris, T.R. (2016). A 10-year study of factors associated with alcohol treatment use and non-use in a U.S. population sample. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 160, 205-211.

Chartier, K.G., Carmody, T., Akhtar, M., Stebbins, M.*, Walters, S., & Warden, D. (2015). Hispanic subgroups, acculturation, and substance abuse treatment outcomes. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 59, 74-82.

Chartier, K.G., Scott, D.M., Wall, T.L., Covault, J., Karriker-Jaffe, K.J., Mills, B., Luczak, S.E., Caetano, R., and Arroyo, J.A. (2014). Framing ethnic variations in alcohol outcomes from biological pathways to neighborhood context. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 38(3), 611-618.

Chartier, K.G., Vaeth, P.A.C., & Caetano, R. (2013). Focus on: Ethnicity and the social and health harms from drinking. Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, 35(2), 229-237.

*student author

Role: Faculty

Professional highlights

Research projects and funding

  • Multiple principal investigator: “Equipping social workers on the front line: The child welfare and addiction specialist fellowship,” R25 DA058484, National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Multiple principal investigator: “Improving early detection and intervention for alcohol problems among young adults: Harnessing the untapped potential of family health history and the electronic health record,” Quest Fund Award, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Project lead: National Collegiate Recovery Study, Virginia State Opioid Response Grant, Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services
  • Faculty champion: Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic Learning Collaborative, National Council for Behavioral Health
  • Principal investigator: “Strengthening African American and Latino Engagement in DNA Research,” Presidential Research Quest Fund, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Principal investigator: “Ethnicity and Alcohol Dependence: Phenotypes, Genes, and the Social Environment,” K01 AA021145, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
  • Principal investigator: “Alcohol, Genetics, and the Social Environment,” Clinical Research Loan Repayment Program Award, National Institutes of Health

Selected presentations

  • Chartier, K. (2023, January). Looking back to family history to bridge the gap in the genetics of AUD and public health. Addictions Seminar (virtual), Training Program in Alcohol in the Science/Practitioner Model, San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego, CA.
  • Charter, K. (2022, October). Social contexts and disparities in alcohol problems. Annual Fall Meeting, Confounding factors: How social pressures impact out patients, Psychiatric Society of Virginia, Nellysford, VA.
  • Chartier, K. (November 2021). Proxies for genetic mechanisms in alcohol research with understudied populations. Advanced Alcohol Research Seminar (virtual), University of California Berkley & Alcohol Research Group, Emeryville, CA.
  • Chartier, K. G., Buckley, T.*, & Dick, D. M. (June 2021). Alcohol flushing response: Not enough to prevent harmful drinking behaviors in Asian college students. In Chartier, K., & Kim Cook, W. (Chairs/Organizers) Asian drinking, genotypes, and health risks. Symposium at a joint meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism/International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism, virtual program.
  • Chartier, K. G., Guidry, J. P. D., & Lee, C. A.* (October 2020). Social media use and alcohol consumption in U.S. adults at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oral presentation at the COVID-19 Work in Progress Conference (virtual), Center for Economic and Social Research at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.

Accomplishments

Affiliations and service

  • Center director, Institute for Research on Behavioral and Emotional Health
  • Faculty: Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics
  • Affiliate appointment: VCU School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
  • Affiliate faculty: VCU Institute for Women’s Health
  • Faculty mentor, VCU GREAT
  • Associate editor of the journal Addiction
  • Research Society on Alcoholism, Program Committee, 2019 & 2022

Teaching areas and interests

Courses

  • SLWK 609, Foundations of Research in Social Work Practice, M.S.W. Program
  • SLWK 706 & 707, Research for Clinical Social Work Practice I & II, M.S.W. Program
  • SLWK 791, Substance Misuse Prevention, M.S.W. Program

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