Dr. Ivette Noriega is a Senior Research Associate at The Begun Center with 12 years of quantitative research experience in the areas of brain development, violence exposure and trauma, substance abuse, and mental health in youth. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Sciences with a concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience and Cross- Cultural Studies. In the past 8 years, she has completed data collection, qualitative interviews and screenings, and community outreach activities in Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. In 2017, Dr. Noriega completed a one-year US Student Research Grant Fellowship in Colombia (South America) under the United States Fulbright exchange program where she conducted a study on Colombian youth impacted by violence in Medellin, Colombia.
Dr. Noriega has been involved in several federal and state-funded evaluation projects, including CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) Initiative. Dr. Noriega’s recent transdisciplinary work focuses on medicolegal coding of fatal death scene investigations with Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office (CCMEO) to identify emerging opioid analogs in fatal overdoses among marginalized populations affected by the opioid epidemic. She has published work on the changing regional trends of opioid analogs and polysubstance combinations of individuals who experienced a fatal overdose in Cuyahoga County. In addition to her collaborative work with CCMEO, she has also conducted treatment evaluations of emergency department programs serving individuals with substance use disorder.