Keith Easterling

Keith Easterling is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology (NBB) program and the Department of Pharmacology at Emory University. He holds a BS from Jacksonville State University (1988), an MS from the University of Georgia (1990), a PhD from the University of Georgia (1993), and an MPH from Emory University (2014). After completing his doctorate, Dr. Easterling served as a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Emory University from 1993 to 1999. He joined the NBB program in 2000 and has held joint appointments, including as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology in the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Easterling is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the Pre-Health Advising Office and serves as the NBB representative on program committees. He is also involved in undergraduate assessment efforts for NBB.

Dr. Easterling's academic interests focus on opioids, stimulants, and club drugs, particularly their roles in addiction and disease. He has special interest in the mechanisms of the initial stages of drug addiction, early-life determinants of adult drug dependence risk, neurotransmitter receptors as mediators of drug actions in the brain and potential targets for addiction treatments, effects of early-life stress on later drug use, and the epidemiology of prescription drug abuse. Although he no longer operates a research laboratory, his prior contributions include publications such as 'Location of fatal prescription opioid-related deaths in 12 states' in the Journal of Safety Research (2016), 'Enantiomeric Propanolamines as selective N-Methyl-d-Aspartate receptor subunit 2B antagonists' in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2008), 'Acute opioid but not benzodiazepine dependence in rats' in Psychopharmacology (2000), 'Discriminative stimulus effects of naltrexone after a single dose' in Psychopharmacology (1999), and 'Central discriminative effects of morphine in rats' in Psychopharmacology (2001). As a full-time educator, he teaches the NBB core senior seminar Perspectives in Neuroscience and Behavior (NBB 401W) every fall, coordinates the Frontiers in Neuroscience seminar (NBB 482) in fall and spring, and offers electives including Medical Neuropathology (NBB 424) and Neuropharmacology & Placebo (NBB 426) in spring. He also leads first-year seminars (NBB 190) on topics such as Anesthesia Awareness and the Neuroscience of Health Behaviors.

Professional Email: keith.easterling@emory.edu