Adonica Warth (she/her) is a new team member on READU as well as a member of the VOICE team for the past 3 years. She has many years of lived experience involving homelessness, drug use, and sex work. She is excited to share her learned knowledge with the community around her, and those affected by various public health matters, disparities, and drug use. Her understanding of the pain and loss cycles it creates has given her a heart for this community and their families and ensuring that all voices are heard. She is very excited to contribute and touch lives through the READU team.

Esther (they/them) is a harm reduction consultant with lived experience in drug use and sex work. Currently working part time at the UW with READU research with expert advisors on drug use. Rachel has a uniquely wide range of expertise in overdose prevention work in national user union organizing as well as local frontline outreach alongside people facing houselessness while battling stigma to overcome mental health and substance challenges. Rachel is grounded in this work as a drug user themselves, meeting people where they are within community spaces seeking to help people prioritize what they want by building empowerment to gain access to the resources needed to reach their self identified goal. In addition to their work, Rachel has many years volunteer experience at People’s Harm reduction alliance syringe exchange and recently trained as a drug checking technician using FTIR spectroscopy to test individual drug samples. As a person who is part of the community in which they serve believes strongly in uplifting the voices of other drug users and centering ourselves in the safe supply and overdose prevention activist movement. Rachel is currently working to develop educational materials and trainings to support people who use drugs and sell sex under guidance through a mentorship of CARAS The Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities.”

Will (he/him) is a co researcher on the Research with Expert Advisors on Drug Use (READU) team, and worked on the King County opioid settlement community consultation project, the law enforcement regional co-design project, and the King County emergency medical services strategic plan. Will is a long term harm reductionist and advocate with years of experience working in the community and speaking at overdose awareness community events and UW lecture series. In addition to teaching students, Will has co-facilitated harm reduction training for clinicians at the UW Harborview Grand Rounds series in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department and has worked with the Harm Reduction Research and Treament (HaRRT) Center for the past 7 years and has co-authored several published manuscripts. Will is also an avid karaoke enthusiast.

Nicky (he/they) is a public health research professional committed to advancing health equity through community-engaged research and collaboration. His career goal is to support programs and policies that improve access to care and health outcomes for communities facing barriers to care while continuing to grow as a thoughtful, reliable, and compassionate leader. He values relationship-building, humility, and learning from the communities he works alongside.

Jenna (she/her) is an interdisciplinary Assistant Professor working in the School of Nursing and the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, and a researcher with READU. She works closely with Public Health Seattle & King County and other local partners on practice-based research that centers equity for people who use drugs. In the past, Jenna has conducted evaluations as a consultant for a range of community-based organizations, local and national government agencies, and international non-governmental organizations. Her mixed-methods research and evaluation work often includes the perspectives of people with lived experience through participatory approaches. When she isn’t doing research or teaching at the UW, she is hanging out with her chickens: Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morisette, Carley Rae Jepsen, and Shania Twain and puttering around her garden. She loves board games, cooking, and arts and crafts.

Rob (he/him) is a co-researcher on the Research with Expert Advisors on Drug Use (READU) team, working on the King County opioid settlement community consultation project, the law enforcement regional co-design project, and the King County emergency medical services strategic plan. Robert is also a peer educator with King County Public Health and has volunteered at Project Neon. His work is deeply rooted in harm reduction and outreach to underserved and at-risk communities, with a focus on HIV prevention. In his free time, you can find Robert in the garden with his dogs Pinky and Toast.

Cece (they/them) began volunteering in harm reduction mutual aid in 2016, providing overdose response training and distributing safer use supplies and overdose response kits throughout Northern Arizona. Over the years, Cece has held several roles in harm reduction organizations: providing HIV and hepatitis C testing and MOUD care, operating syringe service programs, doing street outreach, advocating for more equitable drug policy, and acting as a founding member of a needle exchange collective before beginning their role as READU research coordinator in 2022. Cece’s work centers anti-carceral, community-based responses to drug use and overdose. They are deeply committed to collaboration, connection, and compassion. Cece is often found gardening, knitting, and taking naps on the beach with their dog, Rascal.

Tessa (she/her) is a harm reductionist and Assistant Professor at the University of Washington where she serves as a full-time faculty member with the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Tessa has been a member of the Research with Expert Advisors on Drug Use (READU) since it formed in 2021. Her interests are informed by 10-years of substance-related research and clinical experience involving diverse topics with substance use and chronic pain, as well as her own lived experience and unfortunate loss of loved ones due to overdose related deaths. Tessa’s core values in research are to work collaboratively with people who use drugs, community members, and organizations to develop, conduct, evaluate, and disseminate evidence-based interventions that help reduce substance-related harm and improve quality of life for affected individuals and their communities. Outside of research life, Tessa enjoys hiking, doing yoga, cooking, and listening to live music.

Kimiam joined READU nearly 2 years and is a Peer Support Research Coordinator for the ORCID Study, bringing several years of research, peer support, and mutual aid organizing experience to the team. As someone with many years of lived experience with homelessness, drug use, and recovery, he is committed to dismantling institutional barriers to health equity and eliminating stigma against people who use drugs. Fall 2026 is when he starts his MSW and MPH dual degree program at UW Seattle where he intends to continue learning how to build community-based solutions to public health problems. Kimiam is an avid volunteer for several community-based organizations, including Seattle Homeless Outreach and Facing Homelessness, where he sits on the board with the goal of increasing support for grassroots mutual aid groups and access to essential supplies to community members living outside. In his free time, he enjoys a board game night with friends.

Katie McDowell (she/her) is READU’s Logistics Coordinator, and is responsible for coordinating data collection schedules, communicating with partner sites, and providing other support the READU team may need. She received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of Washington in the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice Program where she participated in community-based projects across Washington, and has since gained experience in program evaluation and mixed methods research. Katie loves reading, playing tennis, and dogsitting for her friends and neighbors in Bellingham.

Allyn (they/them) comes from a background of lived experience in the criminal justice system and a history of drug use. They started working with the unhoused community in Thurston County in 2016, serving houseless youth. Allyn proceeded to operate a non-profit by-and-for BIPOC and queer populations and developed an outreach program during the beginning of COVID, providing supplies to all the encampments in Thurston County. They then joined King County Public Health as the Harm Reduction Associate. They connected with community-based organizations to provide harm reduction supplies and worked closely with a variety of overdose prevention programs for King County. Allyn was first introduced to READU as a participant of the CLEARS project. After the first round of the project, READU reached out to them to be a consultant for the continuation of CLEARS. They have been a formal member of READU as of 2025 and are now the Peer Support Specialist and Research Coordinator. Allyn is an avid fan of anime and hip-hop and is currently finishing school to get their master’s in social work.