Research thrives on collaboration, and we’re excited to grow our team with Ella Durbin, who started this summer as our newest Research Assistant! Ella will mostly be helping out with a special project launching next week... so, you'll be seeing a lot of her in your inboxes very soon. Let's hear from her in her own words:
Tell us a little about your professional background.
Hi! I’m Ella. I have a bachelor’s in politics and peace studies from Juniata College, where I studied public health through a peacebuilding lens. My interest in opioid policy grew when I had the opportunity through a previous internship to contribute to a database tracking opioid settlement funds across Appalachia. I’ve worked in advocacy and communications related to government spending and transparency, and my research focuses on decriminalization, harm reduction, and overdose mortality.
What drew you to research on opioid settlement funds and accountability?
I’ve long been interested in drug policy, but it was through tracking settlement funds that I came to understand the importance of fiscal accountability. Community members should have access to information about how their lawmakers are spending opioid settlement money. But instead, despite transparency requirements, the information is embedded in long documents and meeting notes that aren’t accessible to most people. I want to help change that.
How do your prior professional experiences help prepare you to shape public health funding through this project?
I previously contributed to the Appalachian Opioid Remediation database, monitoring news and government documents for opioid settlement-related developments across Appalachia. My work mainly focused on Ohio and Pennsylvania, but extended to all 423 counties in Appalachian states. During my academic career, I researched harm reduction, marijuana legalization, and overdose mortality. My senior thesis compared decriminalization and harm reduction policy in Portugal and Oregon to evaluate their impact on overdose fatalities.
What do you hope will come from this research into opioid settlement waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement?
My hope is that someday (hopefully soon!), every community member has easy, unobstructed access to information about where opioid settlement money is flowing, in their locality and elsewhere. The decision-making process should include communities, and obtaining information should not be a maze of bureaucratic red tape. OPI’s research into WFAM is helping to make sure settlement money does what it is meant to do: serve communities.
Opioid Policy Institute by Jonathan JK Stoltman, PhD is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Why You Can Trust OPI
The Opioid Policy Institute exists to help communities improve their response to opioid-related death and disease. We provide evidence-based research and analysis that translates complex legal guidance and public health research into practical, usable insights. Our focus is on transparency, accountability, and community healing by increasing access to evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery supports.
OPI’s analysis reflects a collaborative, team-based approach. We blend real-world and academic experience to help ensure our work is methodologically sound, grounded in evidence, and attentive to real-world implementation challenges. We focus on asking the right questions, surfacing tradeoffs, and helping communities build robust responses to addiction.
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