Meet the Team

Dr. Karen Hartwell has extensive clinical experience as a general and addiction psychiatrist in the treatment of substance use disorders with/without comorbid psychiatric disorders. She was the Medical Director of the Substance Treatment and Recovery Program at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC until 2019. She has treated veterans with multiple substance use disorders, including opioids, alcohol, and stimulants, among others. She is now leading several initiatives to address the opioid epidemic, including becoming the medical director of MUSC’s Project ECHO Opioid Use Disorder program.

Dr. Hartwell made a mid-life career change and returned to academics to complete a fellowship in addiction psychiatry to better address the substance use disorders that commonly co-occur with psychiatric disorders. Her research career has focused on understanding the underlying neurobiology and improving treatment outcomes. She has collaborated on a variety of research studies involving opioids, cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco use disorders. She has also been involved in multiple clinical trials, including multisite trials ranging from Phase 2 to Phase 4, investigating a variety of pharmacotherapeutic agents, and TMS.

Phillip is a program coordinator in the Addiction Sciences Division in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at MUSC. He currently coordinates several initiatives for MUSC, including Project ECHO Opioid Use Disorders and Project ECHO Peer Recovery Specialists. He is also working with the ED MOUD project. Phillip retired from the Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission in 2015 after 29 years of service and worked as the Director of Prevention Services for his last 20 years there.

Phillip has developed several nationally recognized youth development programs and has worked in HIV Prevention/Harm Reduction for over 36 years. Over his career, he has been a featured speaker/trainer at numerous state and national conferences. He has also served on many local, state, and national committees. Phillip continues his passion in the field of substance use disorder, in what he calls his encore career, with a great team at MUSC.

Dr. Kelly Barth is a Med-Psych physician board-certified in internal medicine, addiction psychiatry and pain medicine. She directs the MUSC Pain Rehabilitation Program and also performs research in the area of opioid tapering and peer-led interventions for opioid overdose survivors. She is a member of the MUSC Project Echo OUD Hub where she provides mentoring and lectures in the areas of addiction diagnosis and treatment, pain management, and overdose prevention.

Lauren is a board certified pharmacist in pharmacotherapy and psychiatry. She currently works as a clinical pharmacy consultant for the SCORxE academic detailing service within the Medical University of South Carolina, College of Pharmacy. Lauren received her doctor of pharmacy from Presbyterian College in 2015, and completed a PGY1 pharmacy residency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with LSU Medicine & Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. She then went onto complete a PGY2 in psychiatric pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Lauren is involved with educating primary care providers on safer opioid prescribing and expanding access to Opioid Use Disorder treatment. She is the lead pharmacist on MUSC’s Project ECHO: Opioid Use Disorders and also sits on the SC MAT Access Team. She is an active member of the South Carolina Society of Health-System Pharmacists (SCSHP) and the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP). In both roles she is involved in student mentorship and currently serves as the SCSHP Junior board member mentor.

Dr. Allison Smith is a native of West Virginia and attended West Virginia University for her undergraduate and medical school training and MUSC for residency and fellowship. She is triple boarded in Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, and Addiction Psychiatry. Her passion is caring for medically complicated patients with co-morbid psychiatric diagnoses, with a special focus on patients medically hospitalized with OUD.

She currently splits her time in the inpatient setting as a Consult Liaison attending, SUD research, and in the outpatient setting Bio-behavioral Medicine Clinic. She is the Primary Investigator for a state grant that has expanded addiction-based services in the inpatient hospital setting at MUSC.

Sara Witcraft is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at MUSC. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Mississippi and completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at MUSC. Within the Women’s Reproductive Behavioral Health Division, Dr. Witcraft primarily conducts clinical research but maintains a small psychotherapy caseload. Her research leverages transdiagnostic psychological mechanisms and utilizes innovative solutions to improve quality and access to evidence-based behavioral and pharmacological treatments for individuals with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health conditions. Outside of work, she enjoys exploring all that Charleston has to offer with her husband and dogs.

Suzanne is the Database Administrator for the SC MAT ACCESS Project. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Muskingum College in Ohio, a master's degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston, and a master's degree in health informatics from MUSC. Her responsibilities include overseeing the data collection and reporting requirements of the Emergency Department MAT Program and Project ECHO. This includes integrating data between various facets of these projects, conducting statistical analyses, and report writing.