Sharon Larson

Dr. Larson is an expert in social and behavioral health research.

She earned her PhD and Master of Arts degrees in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Psychiatric Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Mental Health.

Dr. Larson served as the acting Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Health Services Research in the Geisinger Health System. She also served as the Director of Behavioral Health Services Research and the Director of Research Training for the system's new Psychiatry Residency program. She served as Geisinger Health System's board member for the Healthcare System Research Network (HCSRN). Dr. Larson was the Director of the division of Evaluation, Analysis and Quality in the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She also served as the acting Director of the Division of Surveillance and Data Collection. In these roles she was responsible for oversight of teams producing the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the Treatment Episode Data set, and other data systems. She served as the editor for reports generated from these data sets and served as SAMHSAs Associate Director for Science.