Amber Cahill

Amber joined the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School as an Assistant Professor in 2016, after completing fellowship training in primary care psychology and medical education. She is the Director of Behavioral Science for the Fitchburg Family Medicine Residency where she trains resident physicians in mental health and substance use disorders (SUD).  Amber is also faculty in the Center for Integrated Primary Care, a team that develops and disseminates knowledge and skills through workforce development and practice-based research. Her work has focused on training healthcare clinicians across disciplines on treating SUDs and effectively responding to any substance use. Her teaching is grounded in harm reduction principles and approaches and highlights the work of early champions, including people who use drugs, local communities, clinicians, and researchers.

The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School was founded in 1962 to provide affordable, high-quality medical education to state residents and to increase the number of primary care physicians practicing in underserved areas of the state. UMass Chan Medical School consistently ranks in the top tier of medical schools for primary care education. UMass is home to the state's first Family Medicine department, which has grown over the decades to include a broad array of clinical, teaching, and research activities. The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health has been a national leader in the integration of behavioral health into primary care. Additionally, its faculty were early advocates for the need to treat SUDs in primary care, with buprenorphine treatment of opioid use disorders integrated into UMass primary care clinics since 2006.