Ricky Bluthenthal, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
Ricky N. Bluthenthal, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Chair of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He is also the Flora L. Thornton Chair in Preventive Medicine. He received a BA in History and Sociology from the University of California Santa Cruz and a MA and PhD in sociology from the University of California Berkeley. His research has established the effectiveness of syringe exchange programs, tested novel interventions and strategies to reduce HIV risk and improve HIV testing among injection drug users and men who have sex with men, documented how community conditions contribute to health disparities, and examined health policy implementation. His current studies include an observational cohort study of how cannabis legalization impacts use patterns and health outcomes of cannabis and opioids among people who inject drugs and a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of a single session intervention to reduce injection initiation risk behaviors among established people who inject drugs. Dr. Bluthenthal has authored or co-authored over 200 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the American Journal of Public Health, Social Science and Medicine, The Lancet, Addiction, and Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research among others. He is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Drug Policy and the Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
