Michael Baca-Atlas, MD, FASAM – President (Term 2024-2026)
Dr. Michael Baca-Atlas completed his undergraduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park and medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed his Family Medicine residency at UNC as well as an Addiction Medicine fellowship at UNC in the department of psychiatry. He serves as the associate medical director for the Tobacco Treatment Program as well as a medical consultant for UNC Horizons, a program that serves women, including those who are pregnant or parenting with substance use disorders. He serves as medical director of UNC REACH Enhanced Primary Care where he sees patients with serious mental illness and substance use disorders. He also serves as an attending on the inpatient family medicine service at UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus. He teaches addiction medicine fellows, family medicine/psychiatry/nurse practitioner residents, as well as medical and nurse practitioner students in various clinical settings. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his partner, eating breakfast for dinner, and “cooking” takeout.
Melinda Ramage, FNP-BC, CARN-AP, LCAS – President-Elect (Term 2024-2026)
Mel Ramage (she/her) is the interim director of the NC Perinatal Substance Use Disorder Network, an active research faculty for the Project CARA program, and a perinatal substance use disorder educator and clinician with Behavioral Health Group. A graduate of Purdue University, she started her nursing career as a psychiatric nurse in the U.S. Navy and went on to earn her master’s degree in nursing in Western Carolina University’s Family Nurse Practitioner Program. The majority of her clinical time has been spent in high-risk obstetrics where she learned that she is passionate about the intersection of reproductive health, medical illness, and health care access.
Robyn Jordan, MD – Immediate Past President (Term 2024-2026)
Dr. Jordan is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist and is an Associate Professor in the UNC School of Medicine. She is the medical director of the UNC Addiction Medicine Program and serves as the Program Director for the UNC Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Jordan has led initiatives such as suboxone initiation in the UNC emergency department and developed an inpatient consult service for patients hospitalized with infection from IV drug use, reducing hospital readmissions for this population by 50%. She is now leading the NC STAR network, a statewide Hub and Spoke model for connecting addiction treatment providers across NC. Dr. Jordan remains committed to finding innovative ways to bring addiction treatment to the citizens of North Carolina.
Erin W. Barnes, MD – Secretary (Term 2023-2025)
I am an internal medicine physician who became interested in the intersection of infectious diseases and addiction medicine during my Wake Forest fellowship. At that time there were very large numbers of patients suffering and dying from injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis; they presented with both unique epidemiologic features as well as difficult clinical management challenges. I pursued a Masters in order to be able to better study the epidemiology, clinical difficulties, pathophysiology, and treatment strategies for complex infections in this patient population. I currently co-treat addiction in certain infectious disease patients and hope to continue to grow our capabilities. I am also the co-director of the Wake Forest Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Treatment team and work to effectively, efficiently, and safely manage infections requiring prolonged antimicrobials in a home or rehabilitation setting. We continue to explore how to better incorporate our patients with substance use disorders into this outpatient antimicrobial practice.
Elisabeth Johnson, PhD, FNP-BC, CARN-AP, LCAS – Treasurer (Term 2023-2025)
Dr. Johnson is a Clinical Assistant Professor at UNC and is the primary provider for prenatal and well-woman gynecologic care (including family planning and treatment for STDs) in the Horizons’ OB-GYN clinic. She received her BA from UNC Chapel Hill, her BSN from Columbia University, her MSN from Emory University, and her PhD from Georgia State University. Dr. Johnson and Dr. Thorp provide Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) with buprenorphine for pregnant opiate-dependent women seen in the Horizons OB-GYN clinic.
“These are important times for NCSAM. Our hope is to gain insight, opinion and share educational opportunities with our NC based medical colleagues to increase NCSAM membership in the process.”
