Core Faculty at University of Adelaide

The International Programme in Addiction Studies is directed by faculty from the Virginia Commonwealth University as well as King's College London and Adelaide University, Australia.

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Andrea Gordon, UA Program Director for Addiction Studies

Andrea Gordon is the Program Director for Addiction Studies in the Faculty of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at the University of Adelaide.   She writes,  “I am very excited to be directing  this program and teaching several courses within it. I am  passionate about the area of addiction science and substance use and how lives of those effected by substance use can be improved. I am a pharmacologist by background, and my specific area of research focus relates to substance use and pregnancy, with specific interests in opioid pharmacotherapies."

Dr. Gordon undertook her PhD investigating the use of buprenorphine and methadone in pregnancy at University of Adelaide in the Discipline of Pharmacology where she is now again based. Between these postings she was a Research Fellow in a very large school of Nursing and Midwifery and a balanced teaching and research academic in a school of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences where she  taught large undergraduate Bioscience courses.

One of the highlights of her career was receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to spend nine months at the University of North Carolina Horizons program for substance using pregnant and parenting women under the Direction of Professor Hendree Jones. As part of this, Dr. Gordon also had the opportunity to be involved with writing the CHILD addiction guidelines in conjunction with the Colombo Plan and the United States Department of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. 

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Abdallah Salem, UA Program Co-Director and UA Course Director

Dr Abdallah Salem is the head of the Discipline of Pharmacology at The University of Adelaide. He has a leading role in Teaching in the Faculty of Health Sciences and the School of Medical Sciences. As an Associate Professor in Pharmacology, he coordinates and teaches pharmacology courses to students in the Bachelor of Health Sciences, Nursing, Dentistry and Medicine degrees. Dr Salem’s research interests are focused on understanding the central mechanisms underlying the acute and chronic effects of drugs of abuse and dependence. He is currently investigating the neurotoxic effects of amphetamine derivatives such as methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA, ‘ecstasy’) and p-methoxyamphetamine (PMA).