2023 Health Scholar Showcase: Impactful. Innovative. Inclusive.

Jennifer Sharpe Potter, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Vice President for Research (VPR) and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA). Dr. Potter is MPI for the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science (IIMS), home to our UTHSA’s Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA).  Dr. Potter is a national expert in substance use disorders with particular emphasis on increasing access to evident-based treatment for substance use disorders. Dr. Potter’s research is supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Her research focuses on developing pharmacological treatments for substance use disorders with a recent emphasis on technology-based treatments for opioids and stimulants. Dr. Potter is a Principal Investigator with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Clinical Trials Network (CTN). Dr. Potter is supported by Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) to oversee statewide public health initiatives to increase access to substance use disorder treatment for Texans including people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other behavior recovery and state-funded programs include a statewide outpatient opioid use disorder provider treatment network, a statewide peer recovery support network, establish a statewide virtual clinic to provide care in underserved areas, implementing hospital-based addiction treatment initiation, and Texas’ first statewide virtual addiction clinic for both insured and uninsured Texans available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Dr. Potter is also MPI for the Peer Recovery Innovation Network (PRIN), a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative to build and expand recovery science infrastructure. 

Prior to joining UT Health San Antonio, Dr. Potter was with Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Georgia and her Master of Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.