As the opioid epidemic enters its third decade, the United States is still struggling to stem the tide of drug-related deaths. The recent explosion of illicitly manufactured fentanyl onto the illegal drug market has further raised the risk of overdose death for thousands of people. At this member-exclusive event, Katharine Neill Harris, the Alfred C. Glassell, III, Fellow in Drug Policy at the Baker Institute, discussed the nation’s current drug landscape and effective strategies for reducing overdoses and other drug-related harms.
Roundtable Dialogues are informal, member-exclusive discussions with Baker Institute experts on current events, politics and policy. These thought-provoking conversations provide insights into issues that affect policy at local, national and global levels.
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Agenda
11:30 am — Lunch
Noon — Presentation
Registration
This event was free and open to members of the Roundtable and Roundtable Young Professionals through the link in their email invitation. These forums are dedicated to advancing the mission of the institute by fostering community engagement and dialogue on vital domestic and global public policy issues through interaction with Baker Institute fellows and invited guest speakers and experts from the public and private sectors.
Featured Speaker
Katharine Neill Harris, Ph.D., is the Alfred C. Glassell, III, Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Her current research focuses on the availability of drug treatment for at-risk populations, the opioid epidemic, and the legalization of medical and adult-use cannabis. She supports policy reforms that treat drug use as a public health issue, such as alternatives to incarceration for drug offenders, needle-exchange programs, safe-consumption sites, drug testing services, expanded access to medication-assisted treatments, and greater integration of substance use and mental health services with each other and with other areas of medical service.
Neill Harris received a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from George Mason University. She earned a master’s degree in public administration from Old Dominion University before going on to complete her Ph.D. in public administration and urban policy. She received the Old Dominion University Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award in 2014 and the Simon Scholarship for Academic Performance in 2011 and 2012.
