VOICES IN THE WORK
The Texas Opioid Training Initiative podcast, Voices in the Work, is a continuing education activity that provides listeners with easily accessible, interdisciplinary conversations on substance use disorder (SUD)-related topics.
Each season will share new ideas and fresh perspectives while exploring a different SUD-focused theme.
Season one explores approaches to strengthening SUD education and workforce preparation, featuring students, faculty, clinicians, and university staff. All episodes are eligible for free CE credit.
New episodes released every Wednesday this July!
Lindsey Loera, PharmD
Host/Moderator
Dr. Loera is an assistant professor of practice and associate director of the Pharmacy Addictions Research and Medicine (PhARM) Program at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. Her work focuses on improving SUD care and expanding access to medications for opioid use disorder through research and community-based implementation initiatives. She also develops and delivers training programs that prepare current and future healthcare professionals to respond to SUD using evidence-based, patient-centered approaches.
Episodes
SEASON ONE
How can podcast production support student professional identity formation and communication skill development in SUD and public health education?
In this inaugural episode of Voices in the Work, we are joined by Dr. Jeffrey Bratberg to discuss The Regimen, a student-faculty collaborative podcast centered on public health education.
Dr. Bratberg describes how the podcast was developed and how students participate throughout the process, including selecting topics, preparing content, interviewing guests, and producing final episodes for a broader audience.
Along the way, we explore what students gain from creating content for a public audience, how podcasting fits within health professions education, and key considerations for educators interested in launching their own podcast.
What does it take to build and sustain a campus overdose prevention program for over 10 years?
In 2026, Operation Naloxone at The University of Texas at Austin celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Since its launch, the program has trained thousands of people in opioid overdose prevention and naloxone use while helping expand access to lifesaving education across campus and the surrounding community.
Dr. Lucas Hill, Dr. Delandra Robinson, and Kate Lower discuss how the program was developed and how students became central to its implementation and growth. Together they reflect on the program’s evolution and what it has taken to build an initiative that continues to grow and adapt over time.
Simulation has become a powerful tool for helping educators teach the communication, teamwork, and clinical decision-making skills needed for SUD care.
This episode examines how interprofessional simulation is designed and implemented to support clinical reasoning, communication, and teamwork. Drawing on experiences across multiple health professions education settings, Dr. Jane Gray and Dr. Brian Fasolka discuss what learners experience during simulation-based scenarios and why these activities are particularly effective for developing applied decision-making skills.
They also share practical lessons for educators interested in developing simulation-based learning experiences, including considerations for design, implementation, and sustainability.
Release Date: Wed July 22 at 6:00 AM CDT
How do health professions students learn to navigate the complexity of SUD care as part of an interprofessional team?
Three students from The University of Texas at Austin representing pharmacy and social work reflect on a structured interprofessional learning experience that brought together students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work. Using a three-phase patient case centered on opioid and alcohol use disorder, students worked through evolving scenarios designed to help them apply communication, teamwork, and collaborative decision-making skills learned throughout their Foundations of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (FICP) course.
The students discuss how working through the case deepened their understanding of team-based SUD care and reflect on the value of practicing interprofessional collaboration in a realistic learning environment.
Release Date: Wed July 29 at 6:00 AM CDT
A structured addiction medicine rotation is changing how internal medicine residents learn to care for patients with SUD.
This episode explores how an elective rotation was developed and implemented within an internal medicine residency program, evolving into a formal rotation now offered to all residents.
Dr. Eugene Brooks Keener and Daniel Sledge share what it looks like to run the rotation, including how residents move through different care settings and why that kind of exposure changes how they think about SUD care. They also reflect on the value of seeing SUD treatment as coordinated, team-based care across systems, not a single clinical encounter.
The conversation closes with practical lessons for educators and residency programs, including how to find the right partners, use community-based learning effectively, and bring lived experience into training in a meaningful way.