Alyssa F. Harlow, PhD, MPH

Dr. Harlow is an epidemiologist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Harlow’s research integrates rigorous epidemiologic methods with addiction science to inform policies and interventions aimed at preventing the adverse health effects of substance use among youth and adults. She has extensive experience conducting longitudinal analyses with national and regional prospective cohort studies, including the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study and USC youth cohort studies. An important focus of Dr. Harlow’s research is identifying regulatory targets to reduce tobacco-related harms, and her research has directly impacted federal tobacco policy. Her work is published in high-impact journals (e.g., JAMA, Epidemiology, Addiction) and has been nationally recognized and featured in news outlets such as ABC Good Morning America and US News & World Report.

Dr. Harlow’s research primarily falls under three domains, including (a) documenting disparities and identifying fundamental causes of disparities in tobacco and other substance use; (b) identifying determinants of tobacco product transitions (e.g., initiation, progression, cessation); and (c) examining the health effects of tobacco-product and cannabis use, including mental health, cardiopulmonary and reproductive health outcomes. She is currently the PI of a NIDA-funded K01 award examining the influence of the tobacco and cannabis retail environment and neighborhood disadvantage on youth nicotine and cannabis vaping outcomes, and she is the recipient of an NIH Pediatric Loan Repayment Award.

• University of Washington, Seattle — BA — 06/2011 — Anthropology
• Boston University School of Public Health, Boston — MPH — 05/2016 — Epidemiology and Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Boston University School of Public Health, Boston — PhD — 07/2021 — Epidemiology

• The Tobacco and Cannabis Retail Environment, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Adolescent Vaping
  NIH · K01DA058084 · Apr 1, 2023 – Mar 31, 2028 · Role: Principal Investigator

• Epidemiology Methods
• Tobacco Regulatory Science
• Substance Use Epidemiology
• Addiction Science
• Behavioral Health

• Leventhal, Adam
• Barrington-Trimis, Jessica
• Unger, Jennifer
• Sussman, Steven
• McConnell, Rob
• Kirkpatrick, Matthew