Dr. Thomas J. Stopka is an Epidemiologist and Professor with the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine. He holds a Master's in Health Science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (1999) and a Ph.D. in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the University of California, Davis (2012). Through his research, Dr. Stopka explores the interconnectedness of substance use, social and behavioral risk factors, and overdose and infectious disease outcomes among high-risk and often hidden populations through community-engaged, interdisciplinary, multi-method applied epidemiological research studies. His major research interests focus on the intersection of substance use, infectious disease (HCV, HIV, and STIs), and opioid overdose. He employs qualitative, biostatistical, geographic information systems (GIS), spatial epidemiological, and laboratory approaches in his studies to assess the risk landscape, access to health services, and implement and test public health and clinical interventions to address health disparities. Dr. Stopka is currently a multi-Principal Investigator (MPI) on three National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded studies. He is also a Co-Investigator on the National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded HEALing Communities Study to reduce opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts, in which he is leading GIS and spatial epidemiological analyses.