Global Office Hours

Dr. Howard Jeffrey Shaffer is the Morris E. Chafetz Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Medical School; in addition, he is Distinguished Faculty at the Cambridge Health Alliance Division on Addiction, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. Dr. Shaffer has served as principal or co-principal investigator on many government, foundation, and industry sponsored research projects around the world. Dr. Shaffer is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He served on the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Committee on the Social and Economic Impacts of Pathological Gambling. His professional appointments have included consultation to many national and international organizations, including consultation to the National Institutes of Health, The National Cancer Institute, The National Council on Marijuana and Health, The Icelandic Ministry of Health and Social Security, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, the Tung Wah Hospital Group in Hong Kong, and The Massachusetts Departments of Mental and Public Health.

Dr. Shaffer is the author/editor of approximately 275 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 20 books or monographs, including the 2012 Choice Award for the APA Addiction Syndrome Handbook, with Drs. Debi LaPlante and Sarah Nelson, and the 2012 Change Your Gambling, Change Your Life, with co-authors Ryan Martin, John Kleschinsky, and Liz Neporent. His newest book, Responsible Gambling: Primary Stakeholder Perspectives, with Alex Blaszczynski, Robert Ladouceur, Peter Collins, and Davis Fong (Eds.), was released during the Fall of 2019 from Oxford University Press.

Dr. Shaffer is the past editor of The Psychology of Addictive Behaviors and The Journal of Gambling Studies. Also, he is a founder and past associate editor of The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. Dr. Shaffer serves as a member of many editorial boards and is an ad hoc reviewer for many other scholarly journals. Dr. Shaffer has received many awards, including the 2010 American Psychological Association, Division 50, award for “Outstanding Contributions to Advancing the Understanding of Addictions.” During 2015, he received the Lifetime Research Award from the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Dr. Shaffer’s research, writing, and teaching have influenced how the health care field conceptualizes and treats the full range of addictive behaviors. His Syndrome Model of Addiction has gained broad acceptance, influencing how we think about both behavioral and substance-related addiction.

Dr. Elda Mei Lo Chan is currently the Director of St. John’s Cathedral Counselling Service in Hong Kong. She also provides clinical supervision to students from the Hong Kong University, Master in Counselling program. Dr. Chan is an Honorary Faculty Affiliate of the Division on Addiction.

Dr. Chan has over 25 years of experience in treatment and prevention of mental health and relationship problems including addictive disorders, especially the recent emerged Gaming Disorder, also in couple and family relationship, student counselling and guidance, teacher training, and conduct research in youth resilience, family coping, addictive disorder, mental health recovery, carer support, and cross-cultural differences.

Dr. Chan has over 18 years experience in providing supervision and clinical consultation. She serves as the International Commissioner for the National Commission for Addiction Professional and NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, and as the Co-Chairman for the Asia Pacific Commission for Addiction Professional. Dr. Chan was one of the Hong Kong representatives in the working group of Gaming Disorder organised by WHO and has presented papers and workshops at different international conferences including the International Conferences on Addiction at WHO.

Dr. Chan conducts research in areas of mental health and addiction, special education needs, social and education policy, cross-cultural issues and psychology. She has set up a professional body and Certification Board for addiction professionals, the Asia Pacific Association for Addiction Professionals (APAAP) and Asia Pacific Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals (APCCAP). Dr. Chan is an experienced counsellor, researcher and trainer in areas of mental health and addiction, family and couple relationship, student/youth counselling and teacher training.

Dr. Bob Ladouceur is Professor Emeritus at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. After his doctoral studies, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Temple University in Philadelphia. Dr. Ladouceur has served as principal or co-principal investigator on many government, foundation, and industry sponsored research projects around the world. His work on gambling is internationally known. He has published 400 scientific papers, made 500 presentations and published 6 books.

He presented his work in many Canadian provinces, American states, European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and different countries in Asia. His cognitive treatment for pathological gamblers developed at Laval University is widely used around the world.

He published a paper on Responsible Gambling, called the Reno Model, with Alex Blaszczynski, from University of Sydney, Australia and Howard Shaffer, from Harvard University. This paper is a landmark in Responsible Gambling who guides many jurisdictions in designing.

He is the co-chairman of the International Group on Responsible Gambling. His books written with Stella Lachance entitled Overcoming Pathological Gambling a therapist and client guides was published by Oxford Press in 2007 (English), now available in Chinese, Japanese, and Finnish.

Dr. Ladouceur’s main interest is in the cognitive dimensions of gambling, including the fundamental aspects of why people gamble, the prevention of excessive gambling and the treatment of disordered gambling. Finally, now, Responsible Gambling occupies a pivotal role in his work.

Dr. Alexander Blaszczynski is a Professorial Research Fellow, Emeritus Professor, and Co-Director of the University of Sydney’s Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic. He is a researcher and clinical psychologist with a 35-year history of clinical involvement in the treatment of a range of impulse control disorders with a focus on gambling disorders.

Dr. Blaszczynski has published in excess of research articles on the psychology of gambling, carried out randomized treatment outcomes studies using behavioural interventions, assessed the prevalence of depression and suicidality, the relationship between crime, gambling, and personality characteristics of impulsivity and sensation-seeking in pathological gamblers. He has developed a conceptual pathways model explaining the etiology of gambling disorders, evaluated the impact of changes to the design of electronic gaming machines and in conjunction with collaborators from Harvard and Laval Universities, developed responsible gambling policy principles and guidelines. He has authored or co-authored eight books, 18 book chapters, in excess of 400 scientific articles, reports and papers; conducted numerous training workshops; was chairman of the Working Party for the Australian Psychological Society and committee member of the Australian Medical Association’s position papers on problem gambling. He has held a number of research grants in excess of $4 million including funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Criminology Research Council of the Australian Institute of Criminology grant, Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, NSW Casino Community Benefit Fund, Responsible Gambling Fund, and Queensland Treasury. He has made several submissions to various government Senate inquiries into gambling.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of International Gambling Studies.

In 1995, Professor Blaszczynski was a co-recipient of the American National Council of Problem Gambling Directors Award, and in 2004, the National Centre for Responsible Gambling senior investigator’s research award for his work in the field of pathological gambling. In 2013, the NSW Government’s Responsible Gambling Fund awarded him an excellence award for his contributions to gambling. In 2014, he received the American National Council of Problem Gambling’s Lifetime Research award.

Dr. Blaszczynski’s clinical contributions have made a significant impact on how clinicians assess the multiple variables that influence the critical development of gambling disorders and how treatments can be matched to specific subgroups. With his co-authors Drs. Shaffer and Ladouceur, his academic work on the principles and guidelines for responsible gambling have influenced both industry and government policies and procedures.

Dr. Michael Stanton is a Licensed Clinical Health Psychologist and Assistant Professor at California State University, East Bay. He holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a focus in Behavioral Medicine from Duke University. He completed his internship and postdoctoral training at Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Hospital. He received his BA from Brown University.

Dr. Stanton’s research focuses on examining how stress contributes to obesity, including health stigma as a stressor. His clinical work in health psychology integrates mind-body skills such as mindfulness with cognitive behavioral therapy to treat health problems including obesity, hypertension, chronic pain, insomnia, and depression. His work has been recognized at national and international scientific conferences. His articles have been published in such journals as Molecular Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, PLOS ONE, and Harvard Review of Psychiatry.

Dr. Debi LaPlante is Director of the Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She joined the Division during 2001, and has been involved with its diverse research, education, and outreach activities. With her colleagues, she developed the Syndrome Model of Addiction and engaged in a seminal 10-year research program on internet gambling that was the first to use actual gambling records, rather than just self-report. She has authored dozens of book chapters, journal articles, and reports. More recently, she co-edited the two volume Choice awarded APA Addiction Syndrome Handbook. Dr. LaPlante authored the e-book, Responsible Drinking for Women (out of print).

Dr. LaPlante currently is involved with a federally funded research program with seven tribes in the Northwest and The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations. She and her colleagues are working with these tribes to identify the strengths and needs that these tribes have related to supporting tribal youth who are in recovery from addiction.

She also is involved with strengthening the Division’s commitment and use of Open Science principles and practices. Dr. LaPlante co-developed the Division’s Transparency Project open data archive, and since then has developed new requirements for research pre-registration and data sharing at the Division, as well as published scholarly papers on advancing Open Science in the gambling literature, specifically, and addiction literature, more generally.

For Massachusetts, Dr. LaPlante worked with the Department of Public Health’s Office of Problem Gambling Services to revise the Your First Step to Change self-help workbook and prepare evidence-based guidelines for treating gambling-related problems. She and her Division colleagues also complete a treatment gap analysis for gambling treatment services in Massachusetts and an evaluation of the state’s gambling helpline system.

She also is involved with the development of the Division’s innovative assessment software, the Computerized Assessment and Referral System (CARS). CARS emerged from her and her colleagues’ federally funded research into psychiatric comorbidity and driving while impaired. This tool provides real time screening and diagnostic information for mental health disorders and geo-targeted referrals. CARS can be used by professionals and laypersons, alike.

In addition to these research and resource activities, Dr. LaPlante is a member of the editorial team for the Division’s research summary blog, The Brief Addiction Science Information Source. She also is a course director for online and live continuing education courses for addiction, and for gambling-related problems, specifically. She is a regular reviewer for research grants and academic journal submissions. Dr. LaPlante has numerous peer-reviewed publications and her work has been supported by state, federal, private, and foundation funding. She is a non-paid member of the State of New Hampshire Council for Responsible Gambling.

Dr. Harvey Milkman is Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Metropolitan State University of Denver and licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Colorado. He is Visiting Professor at Reykjavik University, Iceland (2015 – present). He received a Fulbright Scholar award at the Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University (January – April, 2019).

Dr. Milkman received his PhD in clinical psychology from Michigan State University in 1974. He was recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Lectureship Award at the National University of Malaysia and represented the United States Information Agency as a consultant and represented the United States Information Agency (USIA) as a featured speaker in Australia, Brazil, Iceland, The Netherlands, Peru, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Dr. Milkman delivered master classes on “Adolescent Problem Behaviors” for the US/Russia Peer-to-Peer program on “Working with At-Risk Youth,” July 2016, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.

Dr. Milkman was a featured guest on NPR’s “Here and Now” on March 10, 2017.

He is author of Craving for Ecstasy and Natural Highs (2nd Edition), Milkman, H., Sunderwirth, S., & Hill, K. Cognella Academic Publishing, (2019) and Pathways to Self-Discovery and Change: Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment for Adolescents (Sage Publications, Inc, 2012), the primary substance abuse/criminal conduct treatment curriculum used in residential correctional settings for juveniles throughout Colorado, Texas, and Montana.

Dr. Milkman is author of numerous scholarly articles and books on the causes, consequences and treatment choices for the broad spectrum of addictive behaviors. His recent publications include:

• Craving for Ecstasy and Natural Highs (2nd Edition), Milkman, H., Sunderwirth, S., & Hill, K. Cognella Academic Publishing, (2019)
• “Social Responsibility Therapy: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model for Treatment of Substance-Abusing Judicial Clients” in Tafrate, R., & Mitchell, D. (Eds.) Forensic CBT: A handbook for clinical practice. Wiley-Blackwell (2014)
• Pathways to Self-Discovery and Change: Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment for Adolescents – Provider’s Guide and Participant’s Workbook (Milkman, H. & Wanberg, K., Sage Publications, Inc. (2012)
• Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment: Strategies for Self-Improvement and Change – A Cognitive Behavioral Approach for Treatment of the Substance Abusing Offender (Provider’s Manual and Participant’s Workbook), Wanberg, K., & Milkman, H. Sage Publications, Inc. (1998; 2006; 2008)
• Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment for Women in Correctional Settings: Adjunct Provider’s Guide. Milkman, H., Wanberg, K. & Gagliardi. B. Sage Publications, Inc. (2008)
• Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment: A Review and Discussion for Corrections Professionals, National Institute of Corrections. Milkman, H. & Wanberg, K. (2007)

Thomas J. Brosig is President of Nikki Beach Global, a privately held resort, Hospitality Company located in exotic locations across the globe. Mr. Brosig has been a faculty fellow and adjunct professor at Tulane University, and a guest lecturer at Fordham University, Southern Mississippi University and Stout State University. He has also given numerous keynote addresses for industry, business, and civic groups.

Mr. Brosig has over his career served on several charitable or not for profit boards and has many affiliations in this area including but not limited to, Minnesota Council on Compulsive Gambling, National Center for Responsible Gaming, United Way of South Mississippi, University of Southern Mississippi and Fordham University’s Business Advisory Council, Alzheimer’s Board of South Mississippi, Salvation Army of South Mississippi, Chairman of the Board of SWAM (Service Women’s Action Network) in Washington DC, and Hope Academy School Board.

Mr. Brosig graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 1976 with a degree in Accounting. From 1977 through 1981 he held essentially every financial position with Channel Home Centers, a division of WR Grace and Company. During his tenure with this New Jersey based retailer, Channel Homes Centers grew from 27 to 94 stores with a corresponding fourfold increase in sales.

From 1982 through 1985, Mr. Brosig was Director of Strategic Planning for Barman’s, a Minneapolis based retailer of men’s and ladies leather outerwear and accessories. During that same period, the company grew from 50 to 165 stores.

After spending a few years in private consulting, Mr. Brosig was reunited with Lyle Berman and became an original founder of Grand Casinos, Inc. During his time at Grand Casinos Tom Brosig was CFO, COO, and President, and ultimately was named CEO in 1996. In 1994, Fortune Magazine named Grand Casinos, Inc., the fastest growing company in America. Over the ten-year period (1990-1999) the company grew to over eight resorts, located in four states and employed over 22,000 people. Ultimately the company was purchased by Caesars Entertainment wherein, from 1999 – 2003 Mr. Brosig was Senior Vice President responsible for purchasing, design/development. retail, diversity, and Indian Gaming world-wide.

After leaving Caesars Entertainment, Mr. Brosig worked as an industry consultant, educator, and philanthropist.

For the past five years, he has been President of Nikki Beach Global, a privately held resort, Hospitality Company located in many exotic locations throughout the globe.

Mr. Brosig also served on several corporate boards including Wilson’s Leather, Mountaineer Gaming, Lakes Entertainment, Famous Dave’s of America, and Redstone Grill Americana. Currently he serves on the board of G-III Apparel Group, ltd and Griffon Corp. He has been a restauranteur and also owned an ECH professional Hockey team (Mississippi Seawolves).