E-mail:	merlinjs@upmc.edu

Education
	BS, Biology with an additional major in History and Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, 2000
	MD, University of Pennsylvania, 2005
	MBA, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2005
	PhD, Health Behavior, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2017

Training
	Residency, Internal Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2008
	Fellowship, Infectious Diseases, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2010
	Fellowship, Palliative Care, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, 2011

Dr. Merlin is an infectious diseases and palliative care physician and an Associate Professor in General Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). Dr. Merlin is an independent NIH-funded clinician-investigator. In 2018 she completed an NIH K23 career development award to develop and test a behavioral intervention for chronic pain in patients with HIV during which she also received her PhD in health behavior, and was then awarded an R01 to test its efficacy and mechanisms. She is a national research and thought leader in the field of chronic pain in people living with HIV, and also has active programs of research in opioid misuse and opioid use disorder in patients with serious illness and medical cannabis. She has held several prominent national leadership positions; currently, she is a board member-at-large for the Association of Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA), and was the founding co-chair of the American Pain Society (APS) primary care shared interest group from 2014-2019. She has been recognized nationally for her work with three Young Investigator awards from AMERSA, APS, and the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), and as an Inspirational Leader Under 40 Award by AAHPM. She is an active scientific mentor to trainees at the doctoral, post-doctoral, and junior faculty level, as is the Director of Mentoring for Pitt’s Institute for Clinical Research Education as well as the Associate Program Director for Research for Pitt’s Internal Medicine residency and incoming director of the GIM research fellowship.

Dr. Merlin is a physician and is board certified in internal medicine, infectious disease, palliative care, and addiction medicine, and runs a pain and palliative care clinic embedded in an HIV patient-centered medical home. Her clinical interest is in chronic pain in people living with HIV (PLWH) and other medically and psychiatrically complex patient populations. While on faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 2011-2017, she developed and ran the HIV Pain/Palliative Care clinic, which was embedded UAB's HIV Patient Centered Medical Home. This multidisciplinary clinic included a nurse practitioner, nurse, social worker, physical therapist, and pharmacist, and a total of 24 palliative care fellows in chronic pain care during her tenure. At Pitt, she leads the pain clinic at the Pittsburgh AIDS Center for Treatment (PACT) started by Dr. Bob Arnold. Dr. Merlin also attends for one month per year on the inpatient general medicine service.

Dr. Merlin is an active scientific mentor to trainees at the doctoral, post-doctoral, and junior faculty level, and is the Director of Mentoring for Pitt's Institute for Clinical Research Education as well as the Associate Program Director for Research for Pitt's Internal Medicine residency and incoming director of the General Internal Medicine research fellowship. She lectures to medical students, residents, fellows, and other physicians about chronic pain in primary care, and in patients with medical and psychiatric comorbidities. She is a frequent lecturer at the International AIDS Society-USA, AIDS Education and Training Center, and Ryan White conferences around the US.

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Selected Publications: