Paige Meredith Shaffer

Paige Meredith Shaffer serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School's T.H. Chan School of Medicine, with additional affiliation in the Division of Health System Science. Her work centers on vulnerable populations at the intersection of behavioral health and criminal justice systems.

Education:

• BA in Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• MPH in Public Health, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Dr. Shaffer's research focuses on substance use disorders, mental health interventions, and criminal justice reform, particularly examining co-occurring disorders among justice-involved populations, homeless veterans, and opioid-affected communities. Her work emphasizes racial disparities in treatment access, reentry service engagement, and adaptation of interventions during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. She leads the MISSION Lab, developing evidence-based approaches for complex behavioral health challenges.

Her publication trends reveal concentrated expertise in treatment court systems (2021-2024), with increasing focus on racial/ethnic disparities (2022-2023) and digital health solutions (2021). Recent work integrates pandemic response into homelessness interventions (2024) while maintaining core focus on opioid-mitigation strategies.

Scientific Awards:

• 2021 CPDD Early Career Investigator Awardee
• 2020 CPDD/NIDA Women & Sex/Gender Differences Junior Investigator Award
• 2018 Special Contribution Award from Massachusetts House of Representatives
• 2017 Innovation in Data Science Award (Massachusetts)
• 2017 Commissioner's Citation from Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Dr. Shaffer actively collaborates with the Veterans Health Administration and Massachusetts state agencies on implementation science projects. Through the MISSION Lab, she develops wraparound service models for high-need populations, with recent grants focusing on adapting evidence-based practices during public health emergencies and addressing systemic barriers in reentry programs.