People

Alex Bennett
Alex S. Bennett, PhD, MS
NYU School of Global Public Health - Research Associate Professor
NYU School of Global Public Health - Director, Opioid Overdose Prevention Program
Email: asb19@nyu.edu
Education
PhD/MS, History and Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
MPA, Public Policy Research and Analysis, University of Pittsburgh
BA/MA, History, University of Florida
Research Interests
Overdose prevention, Naloxone, Veterans health, Mixed-methods research, Opioids, Drug use, HIV/HCV prevention, Community-engaged research
BIO
Alex Bennett specializes in ethnographic, historical and mixed-methods research to address drug overdose, infectious disease and other drug-related harm among a broad cross-section of at-risk populations including military veterans, people who use and/or inject drugs, and those managing various forms of biopsychosocial pain. He has been involved in substance use and overdose prevention both in academic and community settings conducting research, needs assessment, program development, service delivery, and evaluation work.  In his research, Dr. Bennett has focused on a wide range of psychoactives in both historical and contemporary contexts. Over the past decade, he has been working with military veterans, as partners and community health outreach specialists, to develop harm reduction programs tailored to veterans who use opioids to prevent overdose and blood-borne viral infection while simultaneously helping them access low-threshold healthcare and supportive services.
Projects
Principal Investigator, Evaluation of a Community-Based Education, Navigation, and Support (CENS) Intervention to Reduce Opioid-Related Harms Among Military Veterans. Active
Principal Investigator, Expanding Opioid Overdose Prevention Program Capacity in New York City. Active
Principal Investigator, Overdose Risk Management and Compensation in the Era of Naloxone. Active
Principal Investigator, Opioid Misuse and Overdose Risk Patterns Among Recent Veterans. Completed
Principal Investigator, Technology to Increase Naloxone Uptake Among Opioid Users Who Initially Decline. Completed
Publications

Recent

Scheidell JD, Elliott LC, Bennett AS, Mahachi M, Lapple D, Nelson JA, Hobbs MM (2024).
Evaluation of self-directed specimen collection for chlamydia and gonorrhea testing among people who use drugs
International Journal of STD and AIDS, 35 (3), 217-227. doi: 10.1177/09564624231215859.

Ibitoye M, Bennett AS, Des Jarlais DC, Bugaighis M, Chernick LS, Aronson ID (2024).
“I didn’t know what they’re gonna do to me: So that’s why I said no”: Why youth decline HIV testing in emergency departments
Behavioral Medicine, 50 (2), 47-54. doi: 10.1080/08964289.2022.2100864. PMCID: PMC9884312.

Frank D, Elliott L, Cleland CM, Walters SM, Joudrey PJ, Russell DM, Meyerson BE, Bennett AS (2023).
“As safe as possible”: A qualitative study of opioid withdrawal and risk behavior among people who use illegal opioids
Harm Reduction Journal, 20 (158), 158. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00893-9. PMCID: PMC10605476.

Pamplin JR, King C, Cooper C, Bennett AS, Elliott L, Davis CS, Rouhani S, Townsend TN (2023).
Pathways to racial disparities in the effects of Good Samaritan laws: A mixed methods pilot study
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 249, 110823. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.110823.

Elliott L, Chen Y, Goodman M, Bennett AS (2023).
Distal factors associated with proximal overdose risk behaviors and recent non-fatal overdose among a sample of people who use illicit opioids in New York City
Journal of Drug Issues [Epub 2023 Apr 24]. doi: 10.1177/00220426231168081.


Notable

Bennett AS, Bell A, Tomedi L, Hulsey EG, Kral AH (2011).
Characteristics of an overdose prevention, response, and naloxone distribution program in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Journal of Urban Health, 88 (6), 1020-1030. doi: 10.1007/s11524-011-9600-7. PMCID: PMC3232410.

Dr. Bennett's Research Gate Profile