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Elizabeth J. Santa Ana, PhD
Charleston Health Equity and Rural Outreach Innovation Center (HEROIC)
Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Research Interests: Maximizing delivery of addiction EBT, Addiction Sciences, group motivational interviewing, Homelessness
Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Santa Ana serves as the Evidence-Based Training Coordinator for the VHA VISN 7 Homeless Program and is an investigator in the Health Equities Research Innovation Center (HEROIC), Center of Innovation, Charleston VAMC. She is an Associate Professor in the Addiction Sciences Division, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist specializing in the treatment of substance use disorders in patients with co-existing psychiatric disorders. She received her B.A. in psychology from Binghamton University, her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany), completed her clinical internship at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston Consortium), and her postdoctoral fellowship in Advanced Psychiatry and Psychology through the Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center (MIRECC) at Yale University School of Medicine and the West Haven VA Medical Center. Dr. Santa Ana, along with her colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine, developed a Care Coordination Home Telehealth program for substance use disorders that was released nationally within VHA through the Office of Telehealth. She is currently involved in the development of similar telehealth treatment products designed to enhance stabilization of homeless Veterans in VA homeless services and Veterans at high risk for suicide. She has received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), VA Clinical Science Research and Development (CSR&D), American Cancer Society (through Hollings Cancer Center), and South Carolina Translational Research (SCTR) Center. Most recently, she was awarded with a Health Science Research and Development (HSR&D) Merit as Principal Investigator in her investigation of Group Motivational Enhancement therapy (G-MET) for homeless Veterans with addictive disorders in the community setting. Dr. Santa Ana has mentored psychology interns through the Charleston Consortium, the DART program, and The Citadel. She provides instruction to PGY-2 Psychiatry residents in EBT's for addictive disorders and she is currently a program consultant to develop a motivational interviewing training program for the MUSC Family Medicine 3rd Year Medical Student Clerkship.
