Dr. Nicholson is Professor of Public Health at Western Kentucky University and Professor of Community Medicine at the University olf Louisville. He lectures on substance abuse and public health policy at Oxford University. He has been a prominent advocate for a public health approach to control of drug abuse (Nicholson, 1992; Nicholson, Duncan, White and Watkins, 2009) and was an early advocate of harm reduction in America (Duncan, Nicholson, Clifford, Hawkins and Petosa, 1994).

He earned an MPH from the University of Texas, a Ph.D. in Community Health Education from Southern Illinois University and an MA in Counseling from WKU. He has published over 50 professional journal articles and made more than 120 research presentations at scientific meetings. His research interests include mental health, drug use and misuse and drug policy.

He is currently on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Public Health Policy and is a past Chair of their Council on Illicit Drugs. He coordinates the DRUGNET Study, an on-line survey of adult drug users, which has been the most extensive descriptive study of non-abusive users of illicit drugs to date.

Selected Publications

Clifford PR, and Nicholson T (1997). Barriers to Measuring the Effectiveness of Drug Policy. Journal of Primary Prevention, 17, 363-374. online

Duncan DF, and Nicholson T (1997). Dutch drug policy: a model for America? Journal of Health and Social Policy, 8(3), 1-15. online

Duncan DF, Nicholson T, Clifford P, Hawkins W, and Petosa R (1994). Harm reduction: An emerging new paradigm for drug education. Journal of Drug Education, 24, 281-290. online

Duncan DF, White J, and Nicholson T (2003). Using internet-based surveys to reach hidden populations: Case of nonabusive illicit drug users. American Journal of Health Behavior, 27, 208-218.

Kerby M, Wilson R, Nicholson T, and White JB (2005). Substance use and social identity in the lesbian community. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 9(3), 45-56.

Nicholson, T (1992). The primary prevention of illicit drug problems: An argument for decriminalization and legalization. Journal of Primary Prevention, 12, 275-288. online

Nicholson, T (1994), Social Policy and Adolescent Drug Consumption. In: TP Gullotta, GR Adams and R Montemayor (eds), Substance Misuse in Adolescence (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications)

Nicholson T (1999). A Public Health Approach to Mitigating the Negative Consequences of Illicit Drug Abuse. Journal of Public Health Policy, 20(3), 268-281. online

Nicholson T, Duncan DF, White, J, and Watkins C (2009). Focusing on addictive disorders rather than drug use. In: J Giordano and D Hall-Flavin (eds), Substance Abuse: From Spectrum Disorder to Social Issues. A Proceeding of the Oxford Roundtable, Oxford University. (Oxford: Linton Atlantic Press)