Researchers' Profiles
Howard Padwa, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Howard Padwa, PhD, is a health services researcher at UCLA's Integrated Substance Use and Addiction Programs (UCLA-ISAP) whose work focuses on how behavioral health systems translate evidence into practice. Drawing on qualitative, mixed-methods, policy, and historical research approaches, he studies the design, implementation, and evaluation of strategies to improve prevention, treatment, recovery, and supportive services for individuals and communities affected by substance use, mental health conditions, and homelessness.
Dr. Padwa has led and contributed to research on behavioral health system transformation, evidence-based practice implementation, recovery-oriented systems of care, behavioral health service integration, telehealth, care placement and assessment processes, and California's Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System (DMC-ODS) Medicaid waiver. His work also examines homelessness, social drivers of health, and the integration of lived experience perspectives into research and service system improvement. In addition, he has conducted historical research on drug policy and addiction treatment in the United States and internationally.
Currently, Dr. Padwa leads the development of SUPER (Substance Use Prevention Evidence and Research), an online resource designed to improve access to information about evidence-based and promising practices in youth substance use prevention. He is also co-investigator on an evaluation of California's Recovery Incentives Program and a National Institutes of Health-funded study focused on quality improvement in opioid use disorder treatment.
- University of Delaware, B.A., 2000, History, French, Political Science
- University of Delaware, M.A., 2000, History
- University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D., 2008, History
- University of California, Los Angeles, Post-Doctoral Training, 2010-2012, Addiction Health Services Research
- Qualitative research
- Implementation science
- Patient-centered behavioral health care
- Substance use disorder treatment systems
- Mental health treatment systems
- Systems transformation
- Integration of behavioral health with other health and social services
- History of behavioral health policy and practice
- Padwa, H.P., Smith, B.T., Ijadi-Maghsoodi, R., Vickery, K.D., Gelberg L. 2026. People Experiencing Homelessness. In Levy, B.S. Social Injustice and Public Health (Fourth Edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Bass, B., Padwa, H., Khurana, D., Urada, D. 2025. Associations Between Recreational Cannabis Legalization and Cannabis Use Disorder Treatment Outcomes in California, 2010-2021. Journal of Cannabis Research 7(60).
- Padwa, H., Chien, J., Henwood, B.F., Cousins, S.J., Zakher, E., Kuhn, R. 2024. Homelessness, Discrimination, and Violent Victimization in Los Angeles County. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 67(5):666-675.
- Bass, B., Padwa, H., Khurana, D., Urada, D., & Boustead, A. 2024. Adult Use Cannabis Legalization and Cannabis Use Disorder Treatment in California, 2010-2021. Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. 162:209345.
- Padwa, H., Henwood, B.F., Ijadi-Maghsoodi, R., Tran-Smith, B., Darby, A., Bluthenthal, R., Chinchilla, M., Vickery, K.D., Kuhn, R., Lawton, A., Fenderson, E., Galarza, E., Haynes, A., King, D., Martiniuk, E., Marshall, P., Mendoza, S., Patton, T., Shaw, S., Stevens, R., & Gelberg, L. 2023. Bringing Lived Experience to Research on Health and Homelessness: Perspectives of Researchers and Lived Experience Partners. Community Mental Health Journal. 59:1235-1242.
- Padwa, H., Bass, B., Urada, D. 2022. Homelessness and Publicly Funded Substance Use Disorder Treatment in California, 2016-2019: Analysis of Treatment Needs, Level of Care Placement, and Outcomes. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 137(108711).
- Padwa, H., Mark, T., Wondimu, B. 2022. What’s In an “ASAM-Based Assessment?” Variations in Assessment and Level of Care Determination in Systems Required to Use ASAM Patient Placement Criteria. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 16(1):18-26.
- Mark, T., Treiman, K., Padwa, H., Henretty, K., Tzeng, J., Gilbert, M. 2022. Addiction Treatment and Telehealth: Review of Efficacy and Provider Insights During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Psychiatric Services 73(5):484-491.
- Mark, T.L., Gibbons, B., Barnosky, A., Padwa, H., Joshi, V. 2021. Changes in Admissions to Specialty Addiction Treatment Facilities in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Network Open, 4(7):e2117029.
- Padwa, H., Kaplan, C.D. 2018. Translating Science to Practice: Lessons Learned Implementing Evidence-Based Treatments in US Substance Use Disorder Treatment Programs. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 24(2):171-182.
- Starks, S.L., Arns, P.G., Padwa, H., Friedman, J.R., Marrow, J., Meldrum, M.L., Bromley, E., Kelly, E.L., Brekke, J.S., Braslow, J.T. 2017. System Transformation Under the California Mental Health Services Act: Implementation of Full-Service Partnerships in L.A. County. Psychiatric Services, 68(6):587-595.
- Padwa, H., Urada, D., Gauthier, P., Rieckmann, T., Hurley, B., Crevecouer-MacPhail, D., Rawson, R. 2016. Organizing Publicly Funded Substance Use Disorder Treatment in the United States: Moving Toward a Service System Approach. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 69:9-18.
- Padwa, H., Meldrum, M., Friedman, J.R., Braslow, J. 2016. A Mental Health System in Recovery: The Era of Deinstitutionalisation in California. In D. Kritsotaki, M. Smith, V. Long (eds.), Deinstitutionalisation and After: Post-War Psychiatry in the Western World. London: Palgrave-Macmillan.
- Padwa, H., Guerrero, E., Braslow, J., Fenwick, K. 2015. Barriers to Serving Clients with Co-Occurring Disorders in a Transformed Mental Health System. Psychiatric Services, 66(5):547-550.
- Padwa, H. 2012. Social Poison: The Culture and Politics of Opiate Control in Britain and France, 1821-1926. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.