Eric F. Wagner

Dr. Wagner is the Director of FIU’s Community-Based Research Institute/> (CBRI), a Professor in FIU’s Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, and a Psychologist licensed to practice in Florida. He is the Principal Investigator of the NIMHD-funded  Research Center in a Minority Institution at FIU/> (FIU-RCMI). His clinical research expertise is conducting randomized controlled trials of psychosocial interventions, including motivational interviewing, for substance use disorders, HIV risk, and related problems among underrepresented, medically underserved populations.

Dr. Wagner has been awarded grants from NIMHD, NIDA, NIAAA, HRSA, SAMHSA, the Ware Foundation, the Aetna Foundation, and Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. In 2017, he led FIU’s successful applications for a $13.1 million NIMHD-funded RCMI Grant and a $1.9 million HRSA-funded Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Grant (renewed 2021). His research involves real-world community-university partnerships designed to alleviate health disparities and promote health and health equity. His community research partners have included the Miami-Dade County and Broward Public School Systems in Florida, the Adair County and Le Flore County Public School Systems in Oklahoma, Banyan Health Systems, Citrus Health Network, the Broward County Sheriff's Office, the United Way of Broward County, Gang Alternatives, Miami Music Project, Dranoff PIANO SLAM, Big Bend Community Based Care, Stable Place, His House, SOS Children’s Village, the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office, Communities in Schools-Miami, the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Choctaw Nation. He has also served as an expert consultant for the United Nations, the U.S. Department of Education, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the NIH, and SAMHSA.