Education
Kicking off season two is Dr. Khary Rigg from the University of South Florida Department of Mental Health Law & Policy. Khary Rigg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy and a Faculty Affiliate of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at University of South Florida (USF). Dr. Rigg also holds a courtesy appointment within USF’s Sociology Department. Dr. Rigg received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health services research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. Dr. Rigg is a health services and policy researcher with over 15 years of experience studying substance use disorders. Prior to coming to USF in 2013, he worked as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Delaware’s Center for Drug & Alcohol Studies and Nova Southeastern University’s Center for Applied Research on Substance Use and Health Disparities. The overall goal of his research is to generate findings that improve the way drug prevention, treatment, and harm reduction interventions are developed and delivered. Dr. Rigg’s research sits at the intersection of addiction, public health, and medicine, and focuses on three main areas: 1) opioid misuse/mortality, 2) drug use within club/nightlife settings, and 3) community-based behavioral health interventions/research. He has conducted studies on underserved populations including drug treatment clients, active street-based users, methadone patients, military veterans, adolescents, and racial/ethnic minorities. Dr. Rigg uses community-based participatory research approaches, qualitative and mixed-methods designs, as well as secondary analysis of large CDC and SAMHSA datasets.