Lesia Ruglass

Ph.D., New School for Social Research

Lesia Ruglass is a licensed clinical psychologist and an associate professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, where she also serves as assistant director of the Center of Alcohol Studies. Prior to joining Rutgers, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the City College of New York, CUNY, where she also directed the NYS certified CASAC program. She also previously worked at the Social Intervention Group at the Columbia University School of Social Work for several years. Her research interests center on several areas: 1) testing the efficacy and effectiveness of combined and integrated psychological interventions for co-occurring trauma/PTSD and substance use disorders (SUD); 2) understanding the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying SUDs (particularly cannabis use and tobacco use disorders); and 3) understanding and reducing racial/ethnic disparities in mental health, SUD, and treatment outcomes. Dr. Ruglass is currently co-PI on a NIDA-funded R25 training grant for translational addiction research for racial/ethnic minority B.S./M.D., M.A., and Ph.D. students in the biomedical and social sciences and co-investigator on a NIAAA-funded large-scale secondary data analysis grant that will examine data from 50 PTSD/AOD treatment studies. She recently completed two pilot studies examining racial/ethnic differences in attentional bias and cue reactivity among cannabis and tobacco users and was co-investigator on several clinical trials that examined the efficacy/effectiveness of combined and integrated treatments for co-occurring PTSD and SUD.

Dr. Ruglass has received awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health and the City College City SEEDS program. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles and presented her work nationally and internationally. She is coauthor of the book, Psychology of Trauma 101 (with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Springer Publishing) and coeditor of the book, Women's Mental Health Across the Lifespan: Challenges, Vulnerabilities, and Strengths (with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Routledge Publishing). Dr. Ruglass received her B.A. in psychology from New York University, her M.A. in psychology from Boston University, and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York City. She completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at the Mount Sinai-St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital. She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA, Divisions 50 [Addictions] and 56 [Trauma Psychology]) and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. Dr. Ruglass also maintains a private practice based in New York City.