Celestina Barbosa-Leiker

Dr. Celestina Barbosa-Leiker is the Executive Vice Chancellor at Washington State University (WSU) Health Sciences Spokane and a Professor in the College of Nursing. She is also a member of the Committee on Cannabis Research and Outreach at WSU. Dr. Barbosa-Leiker’s primary research investigates gender differences in substance use. He research has demonstrated sex differences in the measurement of opioid withdrawal, relapse while in treatment, and predictors of relapse. Her additional line of research focuses on the transition from pregnancy to parenthood in women with substance use disorders. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary research team to assess mothers, infants, and healthcare providers in order to better care for women with opioid use disorders, as well as for women using cannabis during pregnancy. The results of these studies will help better educate healthcare providers and pregnant women, inform maternal and infant health policy, and improve standards of care. Dr. Barbosa-Leiker has methodological expertise in psychometrics and longitudinal latent variable modeling.

Dr. Barbosa-Leiker serves as an Associate Editor for Psychology of Addictive Behaviors and is on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. In 2020 she became a member of the Diversity Task Force for the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. At the request of the WSU president, she currently serves on the Task Force for Equitable Policy and Practice, a task force that is creating a diversity lens to assess new WSU policies to ensure that they are equitable, and the Executive Budget Council, working towards recommending a new university budget. In 2019, she was inducted into the Washington State Academy of Sciences and was awarded the YWCA Women of Achievement in Science, Technology and Environment.