Saba Rouhani, PhD, MSc
NYU School of Global Public Health - Assistant Professor
Email: saba.rouhani@nyu.edu
Education
PhD, Global Disease Epidemiology & Control, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthMSc, Control of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
BSc Medical Microbiology, University of Edinburgh
BIO
Saba Rouhani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and core faculty member at the Center for Anti-racism, Social Justice, and Public Health.Dr. Rouhani’s research is focused on characterizing the structural environment which influences risk of overdose and other drug-related harms. Her work has investigated impacts of harm reduction and overdose prevention initiatives on outcomes ranging from naloxone accessibility in the community to COVID-19 vaccination uptake among people who use drugs, using results to identify gaps in implementation and inform upcoming policy. She is especially interested in how the design and implementation of drug policy has fueled mass incarceration and impacted racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, and in studying how changes to the drug policy and policing landscape may promote or hinder equity in health and social outcomes. Her current program of research is focused on characterizing emerging drug decriminalization policies in the United States and modeling their impacts on equity in criminal legal involvement and health outcomes. Dr. Rouhani’s research has been published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Journal of Urban Health, American Journal of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Rouhani completed a T32 Drug Dependence Epidemiology Training fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2020 and worked as research faculty in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health prior to joining NYU.
Publications
Recent
Rosen JG, Glick JL, Zhang L, Cooper L, Olatunde PF, Pelaez D, Rouhani S, Sue KL, Park JN (2023).
Safety in solitude? Competing risks and drivers of solitary drug use among women who inject drugs and implications for overdose detection
Addiction, 118 (5), 847-854. doi: 10.1111/add.16103. PMCID: PMC10073256.
Safety in solitude? Competing risks and drivers of solitary drug use among women who inject drugs and implications for overdose detection
Addiction, 118 (5), 847-854. doi: 10.1111/add.16103. PMCID: PMC10073256.
Russoniello K, Vakharia SP, Netherland J, Naidoo T, Wheelock H, Hurst T, Rouhani S (2023).
Decriminalization of drug possession in Oregon: Analysis and early lessons
Drug Science, Policy and Law, 9. doi: 10.1177/20503245231167407.
Decriminalization of drug possession in Oregon: Analysis and early lessons
Drug Science, Policy and Law, 9. doi: 10.1177/20503245231167407.
Sherman SG, Tomko C, Rouhani S (2023).
De facto decriminalization for drug possession and sex work in Baltimore, Maryland
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 64 (4), 567-568. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2022.10.021.
De facto decriminalization for drug possession and sex work in Baltimore, Maryland
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 64 (4), 567-568. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2022.10.021.
Allen ST, Schneider KE, Morris M, Rouhani S, Harris SJ, Saloner B, Sherman SG (2023).
Factors associated with receptive injection equipment sharing among people who inject drugs: Findings from a multistate study at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
Harm Reduction Journal, 20 (1), 18. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00746-5. PMCID: PMC9930060.
Factors associated with receptive injection equipment sharing among people who inject drugs: Findings from a multistate study at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
Harm Reduction Journal, 20 (1), 18. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00746-5. PMCID: PMC9930060.
Pamplin JR, Rouhani S, Davis CS, King C, Townsend TN (2023).
Persistent criminalization and structural racism in US drug policy: The case of overdose Good Samaritan Laws
American Journal of Public Health, 113 (S1), S43-S48. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307037. PMCID: PMC9877371.
Persistent criminalization and structural racism in US drug policy: The case of overdose Good Samaritan Laws
American Journal of Public Health, 113 (S1), S43-S48. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307037. PMCID: PMC9877371.
Notable
Perceived vulnerability to overdose-related arrests among people who use drugs in Maryland
International Journal of Drug Policy, 98, 103426. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103426.
Rouhani S, Decker MR, Tomko C, Silberzahn B, Allen ST, Park JN, Footer KHA, Sherman SG (2021).
Resilience among cisgender and transgender women in street-based sex work in Baltimore, Maryland
Womens Health Issues, 31 (2), 148-156. doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2020.11.002. PMCID: PMC8005437.
Rouhani S, Park JN, Morales KB, Green TC, Sherman SG (2020).
Trends in opioid initiation among people who use opioids in three US cities
Drug and Alcohol Review, 39 (4), 375-383. doi: 10.1111/dar.13060.
Dr. Rouhani's ORCID Profile