Rate My Professor Alison Lynch

Alison Lynch, MD, MS, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She received her MD from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and completed a combined residency in Family Medicine and Psychiatry at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Her career in addiction medicine began in 2012 with buprenorphine prescribing certification under the mentorship of Dr. Anthony Miller. Lynch collaborated with Dr. Jill Liesveld to establish UI Health Care's first medication-assisted treatment (MAT) clinic, initially operating part-time in Boyd Tower, which grew into the Division of Addiction Medicine. As Director of Addiction Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the UI Addiction and Recovery Collaborative (UI ARC), she secured the team's first grant in 2017, leading to workforce expansion with key hires and annual funding exceeding $3 million. Under her leadership, UI ARC adopted a patient-centered approach, incorporating recovery coaches with lived experience, launching mobile clinics for on-site prescribing at facilities like Heart of Iowa and the Lary Nelson Center, and pioneering direct text communication with patients. She developed an addiction medicine fellowship for physicians and training programs for nurse practitioners and physician assistants, with the first PA/NP class graduating in 2024.

Lynch's academic interests center on expanding access to addiction treatment, reducing stigma, and addressing substance use disorders, particularly opioid use disorder and maternal substance use. Key publications include 'Three-month outcomes from a patient-centered program to improve retention in medications for opioid use disorder treatment' (2021), 'Substance Use in Pregnancy: Identifying Stigma and Facilitators to Communication between Patients and Providers' (2021), 'Services Available at United States Addiction Treatment Programs for Pregnant and Parenting Women with Opioid Use Disorder' (2022), and 'Improvements in recovery capital are associated with reductions in opioid use disorder symptoms' (2023). She has trained hundreds of providers across Iowa in buprenorphine prescribing and advocates for improved reimbursement and workforce development. Her impact is recognized through the 2025 University of Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence, Distinguished Fellowship of the American Psychiatric Association (DFAPA), Fellowship of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (FASAM), and her role as president of the Iowa Medical Society in 2025.