Cigarettes and Drugs:

Ronald Peters Jr., Dr.P.H., assistant professor of health promotion and behavioral science,
School of Public Health

Cigarette smoking and drug abuse are two of the health risks that Peters hopes to reduce, especially among African Americans.

Ronald Peters Jr., Dr.P.H.

As principal investigator (PI) of a National Cancer Institute Mentored Career Development Award for Underrepresented Minorities, he focuses on cigarette smoking cessation among at-risk African-American alternative school students.

Peters has served as director of the Historically Black College Applied Research Initiative with the School of Public Health’s Southwest Prevention Center. “The purpose of the project,” he said, “is to assist participating institutions to improve their applied prevention research capacity, with particular emphasis on the health problems of African Americans.” Participating along with the School of Public Health are Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University School of Nursing.

He also was the PI of the Houston Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM), funded through the National Institute of Justice. ADAM collected data about drug use, drug and alcohol dependency and treatment, and drug market participation among recently booked arrestees (within 48 hours) in 40 communities around the United States.

“The data and research findings that were derived from ADAM, and from the other research supported by this program, help policymakers and practitioners make decisions concerning the problems of drugs and crime,” Peters said.

In the last two years, Peters has published 19 peer-reviewed papers in the professional literature. His research has been used for national investigative reports and public health campaigns.

Peters attributes his start in public health to the social and health concerns he dealt with as a teenager growing up in New York coupled with “the brilliant mentorship” he received as a graduate student at the School of Public Health.

“My mentors volunteered endless hours to support not only my academic knowledge,” he said, “but also took time to provide me with the self-efficacy to become faculty.”