Genre
Most Recent Book Title
Who's Driving?
Book Description
Nonfiction Book in Progress
Location (city/state/country)
Los Ranchos
Author bio
Dr. Lapham is a board-certified physician, specializing in internal and addiction medicine. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and received a medical degree from Wayne State School of Medicine, Detroit MI. Her training in internal medicine was received at the Mt. Auburn Hospital, Cambridge MA. While in Boston she earned a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She then was employed by the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta GA as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. Her work history includes employment at the New Mexico Health and Environment Department, Santa Fe, NM and several years as Medical Director of Cottonwood Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center in Los Lunas, NM. She is one of fewer than 3,500 specialists certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine and was named a fellow in 2012 and a distinguished fellow in 2015.
For six years while employed as a Research Scientist at Lovelace Medical Foundation, Albuquerque NM, she established and directed a court-mandated screening program that evaluated DUI offenders for substance use and risk of re-offense. The program screened over 12,000 adults convicted of a first driving under the influence (DUI) offense. Dr. Lapham has been principal investigator for numerous studies of convicted alcohol-impaired drivers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One such project investigated the long term progression of alcohol use, other psychiatric disorders, and drinking and driving outcomes among DUI offenders. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, she studied 1,396 people with a DUI conviction in 1989 - 1992, tracking their driving records for 15 years. Some were interviewed in depth about their drinking and driving behavior, attitudes towards drinking, how their lives have been affected both by alcohol and other drugs, and their clashes with the law. She established a not-for-profit research center in Albuquerque devoted to research and education on behavioral health issues. Since 1981 Dr. Lapham has volunteered as adjunct professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
During the course of her career Dr. Lapham has published over 100 academic, peer-reviewed publications, 60 of them focused on alcoholism, alcohol policy, and impaired driving. Currently she is a senior scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.
Dr. Lapham has appeared in numerous local TV and radio programs. One of the studies she co-authored was widely reported in the news media and this was responsible in large part for precipitating the closure in 1995 of all the drive-up liquor windows in the state of New Mexico. Her study results have been reported nationally in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Science News, and she has been quoted in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
For six years while employed as a Research Scientist at Lovelace Medical Foundation, Albuquerque NM, she established and directed a court-mandated screening program that evaluated DUI offenders for substance use and risk of re-offense. The program screened over 12,000 adults convicted of a first driving under the influence (DUI) offense. Dr. Lapham has been principal investigator for numerous studies of convicted alcohol-impaired drivers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One such project investigated the long term progression of alcohol use, other psychiatric disorders, and drinking and driving outcomes among DUI offenders. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, she studied 1,396 people with a DUI conviction in 1989 - 1992, tracking their driving records for 15 years. Some were interviewed in depth about their drinking and driving behavior, attitudes towards drinking, how their lives have been affected both by alcohol and other drugs, and their clashes with the law. She established a not-for-profit research center in Albuquerque devoted to research and education on behavioral health issues. Since 1981 Dr. Lapham has volunteered as adjunct professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
During the course of her career Dr. Lapham has published over 100 academic, peer-reviewed publications, 60 of them focused on alcoholism, alcohol policy, and impaired driving. Currently she is a senior scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.
Dr. Lapham has appeared in numerous local TV and radio programs. One of the studies she co-authored was widely reported in the news media and this was responsible in large part for precipitating the closure in 1995 of all the drive-up liquor windows in the state of New Mexico. Her study results have been reported nationally in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Science News, and she has been quoted in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
