Dr. Essence Hairston received her PhD in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where her dissertation examined disparities in access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment among reproductive-age women (including adolescents aged 12 and up) and pregnant women with justice-involved histories across non-specialty SUD treatment, specialty SUD treatment, and court-funded SUD treatment. Her research explored whether treatment access patterns shifted amid the waves of the opioid epidemic and key policy changes. She earned her master’s degree in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, with a concentration in Criminology, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Dr. Hairston brings more than twelve years of experience in intensive substance use treatment, with a strong foundation in caring for people with SUDs in structured treatment services (residential treatment, carceral settings, recovery-supported housing models). Her work is grounded in the intersectionality of perinatal and maternal substance use and mood disorders, adverse childhood experiences, reproductive justice, the legal system, and the implementation of integrated SUD treatment that incorporates a gender-responsive and social justice lens.
At UNC Horizons, Dr. Hairston manages multiple federal, state, and county-funded initiatives and leads interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary clinical and evaluation teams dedicated to improving the lives of perinatal families with substance use and justice-involvement histories. She has collaborated with several county jails, state and federal prisons, treatment courts, housing providers, child welfare agencies, and individuals with lived experience to promote long-term recovery and perinatal SUD treatment policies.”
