Study Principal Investigator, Professor and Chair of Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Dr. Kahler is Professor and Chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the Brown University School of Public Health and an Associate Director of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. Dr. Kahler’s work focuses on (a) the development of novel smoking cessation treatments, (b) the treatment of combined heavy drinking and smoking, and (c) the role of alcohol in the treatment of HIV infection. He has recently been the Principal Investigator on an NIAAA-funded laboratory study on alcohol administration and smoking relapse risk, an NIAAA-funded randomized clinical trial of naltrexone for at-risk and problem drinkers seeking smoking cessation treatment, and an NCI-funded treatment development project to adapt positive psychotherapy for use in smoking cessation treatment. He is the Scientific Director of Brown’s NIAAA-funded Alcohol Research Center on HIV (ARCH) and PI of an ARCH research component evaluating behavioral interventions to reduce heavy drinking in HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM). He also is PI of an NIAAA-funded behavioral science and biostatistics resource core that supports research on alcohol and HIV outcomes, and implementation and evaluation of behavioral interventions to reduce drinking in people living with HIV. He is MPI, along with Tyler Wray and Don Operario, of an NIAAA-funded project that is developing an electronic intervention for heavy drinking MSM who are receiving HIV testing. In addition, he is PI of an NCI-funded randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of positive psychotherapy for smoking cessation enhanced with text messaging and of an NIAAA-funded treatment development study that is testing a website for smoking cessation that will incorporate brief alcohol intervention for heavy drinking smokers.