Kelly E. Dunn, PhD, MBA

Dunn is currently a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal-editing experience?

Currently, I am working as an experimental behavioral pharmacologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. I have always been interested in the science of psychopharmacology and substance use. I had an opportunity to work in a preclinical laboratory while completing my BA at Oswego State University in Upstate New York, where I explored the effects of prenatal ingestion of chemicals like methyl mercury on offspring learning and memory. I then completed an MS in applied biopsychology at the University of New Orleans, where I again used preclinical models to examine the role that sleep deprivation plays in learning, memory, and the orexin system. During that period, I was also trained in conducting psychological assessments, and that experience ultimately led me to shift programs to complete my PhD in human behavioral/experimental pharmacology at the University of Vermont. There, I began working with persons who had substance use (and particularly opioid use) disorder. I moved to Johns Hopkins in 2009 and have been researching treatments of opioid use disorder and related comorbidities with individuals ever since. Throughout this period, I have been able to work on several editorial boards of journals publishing work on substance use disorders and have edited special issues of journals. I served as a coeditor of the Journal of Addiction Medicine since 2019 before assuming the role of editor at Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology (ECP; please follow us @ECP_editor).

Briefly, what are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract?

ECP has historically been under very strong stewardship, and I do not feel a large need to make transformative changes to the journal. ECP fills an important niche in the field by providing a home for preclinical and empirical human work that explores the psychopharmacologic dynamics of psychoactive medications. I want to further expand ECP’s unique position in the field in several ways. The first would be to carve out opportunities for qualitative exploration of drug effects. This aligns well with the growing movement in the field to incorporate the voices of persons with lived experiences of drug use into the work. Qualitative interviewing can provide important insights into how drugs are being experienced by individuals, but publishing this work can be a challenge because qualitative articles require higher word limits than might normally be allowed. As editor of ECP, I acknowledge that need and will make accommodations for those submissions. In addition and as evidenced by my training background, I really value translational work and encourage the submission of articles and companion pieces that will help readers make connections between preclinical outcomes and clinical conditions. Finally, I want to develop opportunities to publish perspective pieces—expert positions on novel topics within the field. It is often difficult to publish editorials or commentaries without direct invitations, yet provocative and informed insights from experts about current trends and findings are needed to push the field forward. I plan to establish a pathway for such pieces to be considered for publication. The scholarship I would like to see is work that advances the understanding of the effects of psychoactive substances—illicit drugs as well as medications—and may be from persons who are using drugs or clinical populations.

A related area for growth is the relationship between journals and reviewers. I would like to shift ECP’s editorial board away from consisting entirely of senior and highly experienced members of the field to instead include persons who are earlier in their career. My rationale is that editorial board membership is an excellent addition to a CV and something that is likely more beneficial to promotion and career advancement when it occurs earlier in someone’s career rather than later. The work itself provides wonderful opportunities to build wide networks that also can help in career development. The incoming 2023 editorial board for ECP is composed of persons who range in experience from early to late career. It is also balanced with regard to gender and diversity. I plan to continue developing the editorial board opportunities and the relationship between the journal and reviewers over the next several years as well. Beginning in 2024, ECP will relaunch the journal’s editorial fellowship, a program that originated with the outgoing ECP editor Bill Stoops.

Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the hot issues in your area right now?

As I have mentioned, ECP fills an important niche in the field, and the knowledge it disseminates has perhaps never been more timely or vital as society continues to struggle with unprecedented rates of drug overdose deaths. In parallel to these deaths, enormous innovations are occurring in the area of drug discovery for treating both substance use disorders as well as other clinical conditions (many of which constitute psychopharmacological work). This all falls within the purview of ECP, and I encourage anyone working in this space to consider ECP as an outlet for their work. Particularly hot issues in the field right now are fentanyl and xylazine exposure, the psychedelic therapeutic renaissance, polysubstance use, noncombusted and vaped nicotine products, novel psychoactive substances (such as nitazenes), and changes in cannabinoid product development and legislation.

What challenges, if any, lie ahead for the field?

Those of us working in the field of psychopharmacology and substance use disorders seem to face continuing challenges. We are seeing increasing more synthetic psychoactive substances being produced and used and we have few data available to inform their effect profiles and ideal treatment strategies. We need rigorous empirical and qualitative studies of those compounds. We also need to find ways to incorporate lived voices into our work and build translational pipelines between preclinical and clinical work to expedite discovery and product development. Moreover, we need to ensure that persons from communities that are underrepresented in science and medicine receive equitable opportunities for professional development and advancement in the field. I plan to use ECP as a platform over the next several years to contribute toward meeting these challenges.

Do you have plans for a special issue or changes to the editorial process? Have you introduced or are you planning to introduce any changes?

ECP will have special issues, with topics to be determined; these will likely be edited by early career psychopharmacologists. Stay tuned for more information! In addition to the changes I have already noted, manuscript word counts will be adjusted to more closely align with other journal practices from the field. However, my goal with ECP is to meet the needs of its authors and readers (who I hope will be you!), and I welcome feedback about what works and what does not so the editorial board and I can continue refining the journal to be the best it can be.

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