Luba Yammine, PhD, APRN, FNP-C

Biography

Luba Yammine, PhD is a research scientist and a clinician specializing in the treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs).

As a researcher, Yammine has served as principal and co-investigator on multiple NIH, DoD, SAMHSA and other federally and intramurally funded projects. Her primary research interest focuses on tobacco cessation and mitigation of post-cessation weight gain. She is currently the principal investigator of a NIH/NIDA funded multi-site clinical trial evaluating a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist, exenatide extended release, as a potential treatment for smoking cessation and post-cessation weight management.

As a clinician, Yammine practices in the Innovations Clinic, an outpatient psychiatry clinic that provides treatment to patients with various SUDs, including tobacco, alcohol and opioid use disorders (OUD). She is a provider of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and authorized to prescribe buprenorphine (Suboxone, etc.) to treat OUD.  She is also a nationally certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist. Her treatment approach is holistic and integrates services to address addiction along with co-occurring mental and medical issues into the comprehensive care of the individual.

As part of her administrative work, Yammine is the co-director of the program focused on providing substance use related services to adolescents (University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston site). This multi-site project is sponsored by the Texas Child Mental Health Consortium, which was created by the Texas Legislature to leverage the expertise and capacity of the health-related institutions of higher education to address urgent mental health challenges and improve the mental health care system in Texas in relation to children and adolescents.

Yammine has received many awards for academic, research, and clinical achievements, published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national, regional, and local meetings.

Yammine completed her undergraduate studies in nursing at Texas Woman’s University and Master’s and Doctoral studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She went on to complete postdoctoral training in addiction research at Baylor College of Medicine/Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.