A Tribute to a Dear Friend and Colleague

Dr. Linda Lazowski

We wish to pay tribute to Dr. Linda E. Lazowski, former Research Director of The SASSI Institute, who passed away on February 13, 2020. Linda first joined The SASSI Institute as a Research Psychologist in 1995 and retired in 2018.

Linda was a Brooklyn, NY native and earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Psychology from Baruch College in New York City. She then relocated to California to get her Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from UC Santa Barbara. During her career at The SASSI Institute, she was an integral part of the development of various revisions of the adult and adolescent SASSI screening tools. She was also instrumental in the development of the Spanish, Vocational Rehabilitation, and American Sign Language versions of the SASSI as well as collaborating on the research findings for the BADDS instrument. She authored and co-authored research and journal articles alongside our founder, Dr. Glenn A. Miller, up until his passing in 2013.

She was a valued colleague and friend to many staff, past and present. We keep her family in our thoughts as we express our deepest condolences.

by Nelson Jose Tiburcio PhD

Dr. Nelson Jose Tiburcio, is not only the Chief Executive Officer at The SASSI Institute, he is also a Latino drug and alcohol researcher, originally from New York City. His academic degree is in Criminal Justice from the Graduate Center of New York and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His training and expertise have been in the areas of substance use and abuse, sustained opioid recovery, public health, HIV/HCV prevention and treatment, community reentry, recidivism, cultural competence and health literacy in major urban areas. During a period of over twenty years, he has led, directed and/or collaborated on studies investigating the various initiates and public health consequences of illicit drug use, mostly heroin and prescription opioids but including cocaine, crack and other drugs among them.