LITTLE ROCK – Alison Oliveto, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) as a professor and vice chair of research and a senior scientist in the new Arkansas Center for Addictive Behaviors.

Oliveto was recruited from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven Conn., where she was a research scientist in the division of substance abuse in the Department of Psychiatry and scientific director of the Yale Medications Development Research Center. At Yale, Oliveto helped develop and test new medications for the treatment of cocaine and opioid dependence. She has an active research program that examines the behavioral effects of designer or club drugs, such as GHB.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,170 students and 650 residents and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4 billion a year.

UAMS centers of excellence are the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and Jackson T. Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute.