Dr. Waldron is a Senior Scientist at ORI and is the director of the Center for Family and Adolescent Research (CFAR), with adolescent drug-abuse treatment programs in Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has nearly 30 years of experience in clinical work and research with adolescents and their families including randomized clinical trials evaluating individual and group motivational enhancement and cognitive behavioral therapies (MET-CBT), Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT) intervention for parents of resistant youth, and contingency management (CM) and technology-based strategies for adolescent substance abuse, HIV-risk, and related problem behaviors.

Dr. Waldron is bilingual and much of her research and clinical work has focused on Spanish-speaking Hispanic or Latino youth and families in the United States and Latin America. Currently, she is the principal investigator for an 11-site effectiveness trial of FFT in California. To assist with supervision of therapists in California state, Santiago, Chile, and other distal sites, Dr. Waldron has developed a technology platform for conducting direct supervision using internet resources. Dr. Waldron is also taking a lead role on several technology-focused treatment projects, including a web-based parenting intervention in which all data collection and intervention sessions are delivered online and a tele-health study in which therapists will deliver FFT services to families in rural areas via Internet-based video connection.