Bridget Murphy, DBH

Bridget Murphy, DBH, is an assistant research professor in the Department of Health Promotion Sciences at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She has more than three decades of education and experience in public and behavioral health research and service. Dr. Murphy has held positions in academic institutions, and community-based and private-sector organizations. Her principle expertise is in Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) research and workforce development around substance use, mental health, and related infectious diseases for culturally diverse populations in various settings. As a teen, she struggled with substance use and mental health issues and participated in treatment. This experience provided the foundation for her academic and professional direction.She earned her doctorate in behavioral health and master’s in education from the University of Arizona. 

Dr. Murphy began her career by providing services to adolescents involved with the juvenile justice system. This led to various projects implementing evidence-based programs for adolescents and their families, transitional-aged youth, and pregnant, parenting and childless women. She led the day-to-day implementation of a multi-site screening, brief intervention, referral-to-treatment project for juvenile justice involved youth and their caregivers. She also coordinated a study assessing the efficacy of online training for parents who have children with or suspected of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Today, through a Career Development Award, she is developing interventions and strategies to implement Opioid Stewardship Programs in rural health care organizations. She is a fellow in the Mountain States-Community Engaged Dissemination and Implementation sponsored by Arizona State University.

Dr. Murphy values the contributions of our public health workforce and works to provide training and technical assistance to enhance our systems and services. She has directed professional development activities in a variety of settings for professionals across the U.S. She is the principal investigator for a contract with the Arizona Department of Health Services - Overdose Data to Action where she leads training and technical assistance efforts in substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery. Together, the OD2A team collaborates with community leaders, health care practitioners, and community health workers and representatives to address poly-substance use in Arizona. She is the chair for the U of A Interprofessional Education and Practice on the topic of opioid use disorder. She also is the instructor for the undergraduate course Drugs and Society and faculty lead for the undergraduate certificate and minor in addiction and substance use. Dr. Murphy is an advisor to the Arizona Cannabis Education program and the Team Awareness Combatting Overdose student club.