Wendy Slutske, PhD

Dr. Wendy Slutske is a Professor of Medicine with Tenure in the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, and a UW-CTRI investigator at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. She has been conducting epidemiologic and behavioral genetic research on addictive disorders for nearly 30 years.

The lion’s share of her career has been devoted to studying alcohol use disorder and disordered gambling, but she has also conducted research on the misuse of tobacco, cannabis, and illicit drugs. Her research has focused primarily on:

1. The genetic overlap between the addictive disorders.
2. The role of individual differences in personality in explaining the genetic basis of addictive disorders and in explaining addictive disorder comorbidity.
3. Exploring potential gene-environment correlations and gene-environment interactions between risk for addictive disorders and neighborhood contextual factors such as disadvantage or alcohol outlet, tobacco retailer or gambling venue density.
4. Using genetically-informed research designs to identify potentially causal influences in addictive disorders, such as early age of substance use initiation, exposure to childhood maltreatment, or exposure to a disadvantaged neighborhood.
5. Sex differences.

Dr. Slutske obtained her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, she had advanced from Assistant to Curators’ Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri.