Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, MD, MPH

Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, MD, MPH, is a professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Community Health and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Salisbury-Afshar is board-certified in family medicine, preventive medicine/public health and addiction medicine, and has over 15 years of clinical experience working in federally qualified health centers across Baltimore, Chicago and Madison. She served for several years as Medical Director of Heartland Alliance Health, a healthcare-for-the-homeless provider in Chicago, where she developed and expanded outpatient addiction treatment services. Driven by a commitment to meeting people where they are, she is currently the Medical Director of the Compass Program, a low-barrier walk-in clinic for people who use substances in Madison, Wisconsin.

Committed to education and mentorship, Salisbury-Afshar serves as Program Director of the Preventive Medicine Residency and is core faculty for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship at UW–Madison. In addition to her role in TNT, she frequently develops and leads educational programming for the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). She also contributes nationally as Vice Chair of the Medical Education Committee for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, helping to shape addiction medicine training across the country.

Her public health roles span local and state government and national organizations. She currently serves as Medical Director of Harm Reduction Services for the Wisconsin Department of Public Health. Previously, she was Medical Director of Behavioral Health Systems Baltimore, Medical Director of Behavioral Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, and Director of the Center for Addiction Research and Effective Solutions at the American Institutes for Research.

Salisbury-Afshar earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois, her medical degree from Rush University Medical College and her Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.