Faculty & Staff
Faculty
Laura Curran, Ph.D., LMHC, is an assistant professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the 51在线. Dr. Curran earned her PhD in Social Work at New York University in 2022 and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with Tulane University School of Social Work. During her PhD, she was funded by a three-year T32 Predoctoral Fellowship in the Behavioral Sciences Training Program at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. She is a USF alumna, who earned her Master鈥檚 in Counselor Education (Community Mental Health) in 2013. Dr. Curran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in the state of 51在线 and has provided therapeutic interventions for children and families involved with legal and child welfare systems, as well as counseling services for pregnant individuals seeking treatment for opioid use disorder.
Dr. Curran鈥檚 education and research expertise broadly encompasses behavioral healthcare services for women, using mixed methods research methodology to better understand treatment outcomes and utilization among pregnant and parenting individuals who experience substance misuse. Her work has focused on the use of prescription opioids, alcohol, and heroin among pregnant people, and has explored multi-level barriers to treatment, including state-level laws and policies, socioeconomic barriers, and the stigmatization of prenatal substance use.
Dr. Curran鈥檚 research is community-engaged and aims to address challenges in collaborations between healthcare providers and child welfare agencies, to improve behavioral health treatment outcomes for women experiencing substance use. She has partnered with multiple community agencies, such as residential substance use treatment facilities, psychiatric facilities, and outpatient substance use service providers, to better understand the needs of women and families as they transition from residential treatment. Her research also aims to develop and implement technology-based interventions for substance use, with the goal of increasing access to telehealth services to improve maternal mental health and wellbeing.
Dr. Curran鈥檚 teaching interests focus on the development of clinical skills that facilitate working with parents and families in recovery, laws and policies impacting access to substance use treatment, harm reduction approaches, community-engaged and mixed methods research, and applied statistics for social sciences.