Biography

Dr. Karina Villalba studies how neurobiological, interpersonal, and social factors interact to shape substance use and mental health and how that understanding can be translated into treatment. Her work spans cannabinoid pharmacology, alcohol and cannabis epidemiology, and the health consequences of trauma.

She directs the Translational Cannabinoid Science Lab where her research centers on the therapeutic potential of cannabidiol (CBD) and minor cannabinoids in substance use and mental health disorders, including alcohol use disorder, cannabis use disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her research focuses on how cannabinoids act on neurobiological pathways influencing stress regulation, inflammation, and cognition, and whether CBD can improve treatment adherence and symptom management. Dr. Villalba holds two FDA Investigational New Drug applications (IND 180150/IND180642) and is Principal Investigator of the WAVE Study, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of water-soluble CBD for the reduction of risky alcohol use in adults who do not meet criteria for alcohol use disorders.

She also studies the epidemiology of simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use and its longitudinal consequences for mental health and the neurobiology of addiction, including an 18-month cohort study of young adults in La Paz, Bolivia. More recently she has turned to the consumer market for cannabinoid products, leading the first national study of how Millennials and Gen Z understand CBD- and THC-infused beverages a category that has grown well ahead of the evidence base needed to guide the people buying these products, the clinicians asked about them, and the agencies regulating them.

Dr. Villalba has led and contributed to national and international studies on the intersection of alcohol use, sexual and physical trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and HIV, and has built a collaborative research network spanning Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, and Spain.

She is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, with a joint appointment at the Violence Against Women Faculty Cluster and a core faculty appointment in the Southern HIV and Alcohol Research Consortium. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from Florida International University, with a specialization in health promotion and disease prevention, along with an M.P.H. and an M.B.A.