Berkeley Franz, PhD, is a medical sociologist and health services researcher whose research and teaching focus on health disparities and substance use. Dr. Franz is currently Associate Professor of Community-based Health at the Ohio, University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Athens, Ohio and Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O. Endowed Faculty Fellow in Behavioral Health. She also co-directs the Appalachian Institute to Advance Health Equity Science (ADVANCE) at Ohio University. Dr. Franz currently leads two studies funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse focused on increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder in safety net hospitals and rural primary care clinics.

During her fellowship year, Dr. Franz will develop a feasible, acceptable, health care professional-specific stigma-reduction intervention for use in multiple practice settings. She and her team will first build on their existing preliminary data to identify the key underlying modifiable features of stigma toward people with OUD and adapt a brief training intervention for rural providers given the essential role these health care providers play in prescribing medications for opioid use disorders.