With twenty years of professional experience in the fields of HIV prevention, harm reduction, and peer recovery support services. Mr. Viera has a demonstrated interest in improving the evidence around interventions addressing substance use. Mr. Viera worked for several years with the Altarum Institute, providing training, technical assistance, and other forms of support to organizations implementing and promoting peer recovery support services through SAMHSA’s Recovery Community Services Program, Recovery Community Services Program- Statewide Network, Access to Recovery, and the Targeted Capacity Expansion Peer-to-Peer grants.
Mr. Viera recently took on a role as Research Assistant Professor with the University of Missouri Kansas City to serve as a director with the Collaborative to Advance Health Services. In this role, he acts as the co-director of the Peer Recovery Center of Excellence. His long-term goals are to continue to build the selection of evidence-based harm reduction and recovery support interventions to address substance use and related health issues and to support their implementation across the United States.
Mr. Viera started his career providing HIV prevention and harm reduction services at the AIDS Center of Queens County before seeking a Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He then applied these professional experience and skills to build the capacity of HIV prevention, harm reduction, and peer recovery workforces and organizations through the provision of training and technical assistance for fifteen years. Mr. Viera is currently finishing a PhD program in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale University School of Public Health. Formerly a pre-doctoral fellow with the Center on Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, he has conducted several research projects focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to address substance use and related health issues, such as HIV, hepatitis C, and overdose. Mr. Viera is applying the skills honed through these projects to develop and pilot test an app-based intervention supporting the recovery of individuals with co-occurring alcohol and opioid use disorders.
Mr. Viera received a Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and his PhD from the Yale University School of Public Health.
Funding for this initiative was made possible by grant no. 1H79TI083022 from SAMHSA. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
