Dr. Shillington, Director and Professor, joined CSU in the fall of 2012. Dr. Shillington has been involved in research in the area of adolescent risk behavior prevention and substance use issues since 1987. She was Professor at San Diego State University in the School of Social Work, and an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Public Health. She received her Ph.D. from Washington University. She was an National Institute of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Fellow and received a Masters in Psychiatric Epidemiology from the School of Medicine at Washington University. As a Post-Doctoral Fellow she was a Research Associate on several National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded projects. Dr. Shillington was a trainer for the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview at Washington University’s School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. As a research associate there, she was involved in using these diagnostic instruments to interview general population adults and adults in alcohol and other drug treatment. Furthermore, she was an actively involved investigator in the DSM-IV Field Trials for Substance Abuse and Dependence as well as the World Health Organization-National Institutes of Health Joint Project on Diagnosis and Classification of Mental Disorders, and Alcohol- and Drug-Related Problems. Her research has continued to focus on substance abuse and high-risk sexual behaviors among children and young adults. She was a Research Investigator at the Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health. She helped create and served as the Associate Director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies and Services at SDSU. She has published on adolescent and underage risk behaviors and prevention. She has been Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on NIH, other federal, and state grants totaling over $12 million.

Dr. Shillington Research interest includes: Adolescent and young adult risk behavior prevention and reduction, psychiatric epidemiology, psychometrics, alcohol and other drug use prevention and intervention.