Events

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What is transparency in qualitative research and how does it contribute to methodological rigor? Drs. Karcher and Jerolmack will explain the concept of qualitative transparency, how it can be achieved and why it is important. They will also address the complex relationship between transparency and confidentiality in conducting ethical research.

Sebastian Karcher is the Director of the Qualitative Data Repository, Director of the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry, and Research Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. His main research interests are in research transparency, management and curation of qualitative data, and the interaction of technology and scholarship.

Colin Jerolmack is professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University. He is the author of two ethnographic books, Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town and The Global Pigeon, and he has published multiple articles and co-edited a book on qualitative research methods and ethics.

Ellen Benoit is an Associate Director in CDUHR’s Transdisciplinary Methods Core and a Principal Investigator at North Jersey Community Research Initiative in Newark, NJ. She conducts community-engaged qualitative and mixed-methods research on health inequities, particularly those related to HIV risk and substance use among marginalized groups.

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For the past two years, investigators at the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) have partnered with the Peer Network of New York (PNNY) to examine overdose reversals with naloxone and to co-develop a more compassionate overdose response protocol. From project inception, we worked alongside PNNY members to shape aims and research questions, culminating in a co-designed survey instrument that peer researchers administered within their communities. Along the way, we navigated institutional hurdles—such as onboarding community researchers through CITI training—and more routine challenges, including reaching consensus on methodological choices across a relatively large, multi-institutional team. In this discussion, we report substantive findings on overdose reversals and distill lessons learned about best practices for community-based, peer-led research.

The Peer Network of New York (PNNY) started in 2010 as a pilot project with NYC DOHMH’s Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care & Treatment to connect with Peers working in harm reduction, syringe exchange programs (SEP), and naloxone distribution. The PNNY has a long-standing history of engaging with individuals and communities in the South Bronx and East Harlem, and is now a network of over 300 Peers in New York’s five boroughs and across the State. They support the work of peers across New York State through education and training, leadership development, and advocacy, recognizing that peers are most effective in fighting to save lives and reduce harm for our most vulnerable community members. Members of the PNNY who worked on the study: Hiawatha Collins, Terrell Jones, Billy. Almodovar, Marilyn Reyes, Julia James, Daniel Parker, Althea Matthews, Thomas Blazsek, Florence Craft, Ivette Chavez Gonzalez, Rachel Arana, Acxel Barboza, and Jeannette Mathews.

Alex Bennett specializes in ethnographic, historical, and mixed-methods research to address drug overdose, infectious disease, and other drug-related harm among a broad cross-section of at-risk populations, including military veterans, people who use and/or inject drugs, and those managing various forms of biopsychosocial pain. He has been involved in substance use and overdose prevention both in academic and community settings conducting research, needs assessment, program development, service delivery, and evaluation work. In his research, Dr. Bennett has focused on a wide range of psychoactives in both historical and contemporary contexts. Over the past decade, he has been working with military veterans, as partners and community health outreach specialists, to develop harm reduction programs tailored to veterans who use opioids to prevent overdose and blood-borne viral infection while simultaneously helping them access low-threshold healthcare and supportive services.

David Frank is a Medical Sociologist and Research Scientist at the NYU School of Global Public Health (GPH). His research focuses primarily on opioid use, opioid use treatment programs like Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), and the structural and policy context in which opioid use and treatment occurs within. He is also someone who has been on methadone maintenance treatment for more than 15 years and uses those experiences in his research to produce scholarship that more accurately reflects the lives and real-world experiences of people who use illegal substances.

Holly Hagan, Co-Director of CDUHR, is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Social Behavioral Sciences at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist, Dr. Hagan’s work has sought to understand the causes and consequences of substance use disorders. Her research has examined blood-borne and sexually-transmitted infections among people who use drugs. She is an internationally-recognized expert in the etiology, epidemiology, natural history, prevention and treatment of hepatitis C virus infection among PWUD, and in 2014 her work was recognized by the US Department of Health and Human Services with the President’s Award for Leadership in the Control of Viral Hepatitis in the United States.

Don Des Jarlais is a leader in the fields of HIV/AIDS and injecting drug use and has published extensively on these topics including articles in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Science, and Nature. He is active in international research, having collaborated on studies in many different countries. He serves as a consultant to various institutions, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Academy of Sciences, and the World Health Organization. His research has received numerous awards, including a New York State Department of Health Commissioner’s award for promoting the health of persons who use drugs. He formerly served as a commissioner for the National Commission on AIDS; as a core group member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Injecting Drug Use; and as a member of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Scientific Advisory Board.

Courtney McKnight is a Principal Investigator specializing in mixed methods research focused on the epidemiology of drug use, opioid overdose, HIV and HCV infection. Dr. McKnight has over 20 years of experience conducting public health research related to drug use, as well as field experience as a harm reduction service provider. Prior to joining NYU, Dr. McKnight served as the assistant director of research at the Chemical Dependency Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she was an investigator and project director on numerous federally funded research studies, including evaluations of syringe services programs; investigations of the drivers that contribute to disparate rates of HIV and HCV; and interventions to increase access to HIV and HCV testing and care. Her current research interests include examining the shifting landscape of illicit opioids, including the increasing prevalence of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, and risk environments of people who use drugs.