Magdalena Cerdá is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy, at the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine. She obtained her doctorate from the Harvard University School of Public Health in 2006, and is a former Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar. Her research focuses on the effects that state and national drug and health policies have on substance abuse trends, and on the ways the urban context shapes violence. Current funded research focuses on the impact that cannabis laws and opioid policies have on substance abuse, mental illness, and associated health problems in the United States and South America. In addition, she is evaluating the impact that firearm disqualifications based on mental illness and substance abuse criteria could have on population-level rates of firearm-related mortality.