Shan D. Mohammed, associate director of the master of public health program and senior clinical instructor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is one of 10 national scholars named as a fellow in The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse program. It is a national program designed to encourage and support emerging leaders in the field of substance abuse prevention and treatment.

As a fellow, he will receive $25,000 a year over a three-year period to develop a program to assist in his career development and to design and implement a community project.

Mohammed has seen a lot as a family clinician and public health professional.

"In a world of 10,000 sorrows, I have also experienced 10,000 joys," he said.

Though much of the sorrow he has seen in places such as Thailand and Burma is inextricably linked with opium, rice whiskey or methamphetamines, Mohammed recognizes the problem of substance abuse as universal.

He has seen his share of heartache at home in Ohio. A close family member struggled with substance abuse, and it is mainly from watching this struggle that Mohammed learned of the intersection between various kinds of sadness: substance abuse, family dysfunction, addiction and social stigma.

Unfortunately, the tragedy doesn't stop there.

"I have heard stories of lost relationships, tragic accidents, missed educational opportunities, sexual abuse, HIV infection and death," he said. "I have seen endocarditis, cancer, liver failure, pancreatitis and other diseases whittle away at the bodies and spirits of people caught in the cycle of addiction."

That's a lot to see for someone still early in his career.

Mohammed is the epitome of the Renaissance man. As an undergraduate, he studied musicology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He still plays the piano every day.

After graduation, he joined the Peace Corps where he worked on the Thai-Laotian border in a small hospital that did outreach work to address public health issues such as iodine deficiency and HIV infection. Mohammed then went on to complete his master of public health in behavioral sciences at Boston University and his medical degree at CWRU.

Now, he is not only on the CWRU faculty, but also a clinician at a clinic for the underserved and an administrator. In addition to these tasks, he devotes a great deal of time to treating end-of-life patients.

As a fellow in The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse program, Mohammed plans to continue developing himself as an international public health specialist focusing on community-based responses to substance abuse issues.

His goals include being a public policy advocate who actively formulates policy and interacts with the media. He plans to continue his work in research while benefiting from the mentoring available to him as part of the program. Currently, Mohammed is researching "Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention in African-American Families."

He said that understanding differences informs the complexity of treating substance abuse on the community level; therefore, he is sensitive to how age, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, economic background and sexual orientation affect prevention and treatment efforts. He also is working to develop a Substance Abuse Track within the master of public health program.

Between 2000 and 2001, Mohammed was the recipient of three prestigious fellowships: The Academic Medicine Fellowship at CWRU, in which he focused on teaching and pursuing additional training in substance abuse treatment and end-of-life care; the Faculty Development Fellowship in Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where he further focused on professional development; and the Faculty Development Fellowship in Substance Abuse Prevention at CWRU, where he explored a variety of issues related to substance abuse with a focus in the area of pain management for patients with a history of substance abuse or active substance abuse at the end of life.

Mohammed serves as the elected chair of the Group on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Health for the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and as an appointed member of the Continuing Medical Education Committee at University Hospitals of Cleveland.

He transcends many boundaries and borders and embraces the challenges inherent in his ambitious mission.

He references Frederick Buechner, a theologian, to summarize his feelings: "Vocation is that place where one's great gladness and the world's great hunger intersect."

"Particularly when dealing with the difficult and multifaceted challenges of addiction, we need to have the best talent from diverse backgrounds and expertise," said Michael McGinnis, senior vice president and director of the Health Group at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Our Developing Leadership program helps attract and nurture the kind of new leaders we need to move the frontiers of progress. Through this program, we seek to both encourage their initiative and to create a context in which their efforts will be successful."

Substance abuse continues to take a substantial toll on human life and financial resources and remains the nation's top public health problem. Approximately 25 percent of all deaths in the United States are attributable to the abuse of alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs. That translates into roughly 500,000 deaths a year that are directly or indirectly linked to substance abuse. The economic costs, which are underscored by the costs of illness and crime, are equally staggering: The approximate annual cost of substance abuse is $414 billion.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates grant-making in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse-tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

Now in its third year, the Developing Leadership program continues to be managed by the national program office at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Public Health.

For additional information on the Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse program, please visit the Web site: http://www.SALeaders.org.

For complete press kit, please visit http://newsroom.mbooth.com/sa-leaders.