David Smelson, PsyD

Professor of Psychiatry  Director, Center of Excellence in Addiction

Dr. David Smelson is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UMass Chan Medical School and Director of the Center of Excellence in Addictions.  Prior to directing the Center of Excellence in Addictions, he served as the Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Psychiatry, a position he held for 10 years.  Dr. Smelson's work has focused on the treatment of substance abuse and co-occurring mental health and substance abuse in civilian and military populations. His research has been funded for 23 consecutive years through the National Institute of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration. Dr. Smelson developed an integrated treatment approach called Maintaining Independence and Sobriety through Systems Integration, Outreach, and Networking (MISSION) to address co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems, which was recognized by SAMHSA as an Evidence Based Practice back in 2016. He has made adaptions of the model for military, homeless and veteran populations and has recently started to do large multisite implementation studies of the model to look at organizational facts that predict uptake.