Rate My Professor Joy Scheidell

Joy Scheidell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Central Florida, a position she assumed in Spring 2023. She earned her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from New York University, her M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the University of Florida, and her B.S. in Community Health with a focus in Health Education from Florida Gulf Coast University. Prior to UCF, Scheidell held an appointment as Assistant Professor in research at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She has also taught courses on introduction to public health, epidemiology, and sexual and reproductive health through the Bard Prison Initiative.

Scheidell's research investigates the intersections among substance use, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health, with particular emphasis on vulnerable and marginalized populations such as people who use drugs, women, and racial/ethnic minority groups. She conducts primary data collection studies and secondary data analyses using advanced epidemiologic methods grounded in causal inference. Her areas of specialty encompass substance use, sexual and reproductive health, harm reduction, health inequities, and epidemiologic methods. Scheidell has produced more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, including "Childhood traumatic experiences and the association with marijuana and cocaine use in adolescence through adulthood" (Addiction, 2018), "A conceptual model for understanding post-release opioid-related overdose risk" (Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 2019), "The relationships of childhood trauma and adulthood prescription pain reliever misuse and injection drug use" (Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2016), and "Racial/ethnic disparities in opioid overdose prevention" (Harm Reduction Journal, 2023). She received a predoctoral fellowship in the NIDA-funded Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research Program at NYU, was a scholar in the 2022 NIDA Diversity Scholars Network Program cohort, holds associate membership in the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and was awarded the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program for Health Disparities Research. Scheidell serves as principal investigator on the NIDA grant "Drug Treatment as Disease Prevention: Reducing Sexually Transmitted Infection Risk among Women Who Use Drugs" (2024-2026) and has been appointed to the editorial board of BMC Women's Health.