Ron Cisler, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor 

Interests and Expertise
Dr. Cisler is Associate Professor of Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH). He directs the Center for Urban Population Health, which is a multidisciplinary program of urban population health research that is community-connected and University (UWM, UWSMPH) and Health System (Aurora Health Care, Inc.) supported. His primary research interests are in population disparities in behavioral health risk factors and translating clinical outcomes of health services research to urban community populations. He is nationally and internationally known for his particular expertise in examining innovative approaches in assessing recovery outcomes of alcoholism treatment clinical trials. His program of research has been or is currently funded by numerous grants and contracts from various organizations including federal (NIH-NIAAA, NIH-NIMH, CDC, DED, RWJ), pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Lipha, Oy-Contral), statewide academic-community partnership health foundations and local foundations. Dr. Cisler teaches graduate courses on clinical research methods and population health and epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research and field reviewer for numerous other professional journals targeting both broad health issues and clinical and public health alcohol research. He is currently co-authoring a handbook series on brief assessment measures in health research and practice targeting behavioral disorders including substance use and eating disorders. Dr. Cisler received recently the 2005 Dean's Research Award at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Health Sciences.

Recent Publications
Berger, L. K., Sedivy, S. K., & Cisler, R. A. (In press). The influence of work environmental stressors and individual social vulnerabilities on employee problem drinking. Journal of Social Work Practice and the Addictions.

Anton, R. F., Ciraulo, D. A., Cisler, R. A. and others for The COMBINE Study Research Group (2006). Combined pharmacotherapies and behavioral interventions (The COMBINE Study) for alcohol dependence). Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 295(7), 2003-217.

Partington, S. N., Cisler, R. A., & Blair, K. A. (2006). Prevalence of children with special health care needs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Data from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Statistical Area. Wisconsin Medical Journal, 105(3), 30-35.

Cisler, R. A., Kivlahan, D. R., Donovan, D., & Mattson, M. E. (2005). Assessing non-drinking outcomes in combined pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy clinical trials for treatment of alcohol dependence. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 15 (July), 110-118.

Cisler, R. A., Kowalchuk, R. K., Saunders, S. M., Zweben, A., Trinh, H. Q. (2005). Applying Clinical Significance Methodology to Alcoholism Treatment Trials: Determining Recovery Outcome Status with Individual- and Population-Based Measures. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(11), 1991-2000.

Couper, D. J., Hosking, J. D., Cisler, R. A., Gastfriend, D. R., & Kivlahan, D. R. (2005). Factorial designs in clinical trials. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 15 (July), 24-32.

Donovan, D., Mattson, M. E., Cisler, R. A., Longabaugh, R., & Zweben, A. (2005). Quality of life in alcoholism treatment clinical trials. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 15 (July), 119-139.

Hosking, J. D., Cisler, R. A., Couper, D. J., Gastfriend, D. R., & Kivlahan, D. R., & Anton, R. F. (2005). Design and analysis of Trials of Combination Therapies (TCTs). Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 15 (July), 34-42.

Ott, C. H., Plach, S. K., Hewitt, J., Beauchamp, J. Cashin, S., Kelber, S., Cisler, R. A., Weiss, J. (2005). Smoking-related health behaviors of employees and readiness to quit. American Academy of Health Nurses, 53(6), 249-256.

Zarkin, G. A., Bray, J. W., Mitra, D., Cisler, R. A., & Kivlahan, D. R. (2005). Cost methodology of COMBINE. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 15 (July), 50-55.

COMBINE Study Research Group (Including Cisler, R. A.). (2003). Testing combined pharmacotherapies and behavioral interventions in alcohol dependence: Rationale and methods. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 27(7), 1107-1122.

Cisler, R. A., & Berger, L. (2001). Assessing Alcoholism Treatment Composite Outcome: Further evidence utilizing brief measures. Journal of Mental Health, 10(6), 657-672.

Cisler, R. A., & Hargarten, S. (2000). Public Health Strategies to Reduce Alcohol Related Illness, Injury and Death in Milwaukee County. Wisconsin Medical Journal, 99(3, June), 71-78.

Holder, H., Cisler, R. A., Longabaugh, R., Stout, R. L., Treno, A. J., & Zweben, A. (2000). Alcoholism Treatment and Medical Care Costs and Benefits from Project MATCH. Addiction, 95(7), 999-1013.

Cisler, R. A., & Zweben, A. (1999). Development of a composite measure for assessing alcohol treatment outcome: Operationalization and validation. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 23(2), 263 271.

Cisler, R. A., Holder, H., Longabaugh, R., Stout, R., & Zweben, A. (1998). Actual and estimated replication costs of alcoholism treatment modalities: Case study from Project MATCH. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 59(5), 503 512.

Speaker Topics 
Alcoholism and Alcohol Related Illnesses
Population Health Disparities

Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Health and Social Psychology, 1992
M.S., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Experimental Psychology, 1987
B.S., University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, General Psychology, 1984