Chelsea L. Shover, PhD

Chelsea L. Shover, PhD is an Associate Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where she directs the Epidemiology, Policy, and Implementation Lab (EPI Lab). She founded Drug Checking Los Angeles in 2022 to gain timely, actionable insight into the illicit drug supply. Dr. Shover completed her PhD in epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Alongside her academic research, Dr. Shover has worked in local government, community clinics, and policy advising capacities, all of which inform her team’s approach to urgent and complex public health problems. Her research has been published in top academic journals including Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Addiction, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, and The International Journal of Drug Policy. Her lab’s work is currently funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. She regularly presents insights from drug checking in academic and community settings around the world. Dr. Shover’s approach to drug checking as a population health strategy has been honored with the Helping End Addiction Long-term Initiative Director’s Trailblazer Award in 2023 and a Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Community Partner Values Award in 2025. As an educator, Dr. Shover is especially committed to mentoring trainees from underrepresented in science, including people with personal experience of substance use disorders and mental illness.

Ruby Romero, BA

Ruby Romero, BA was born in Inglewood, CA and is the daughter of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants. She is a first-generation college graduate, earning BAs in Anthropology and Biology from Grinnell College. She has been a Research Coordinator at the EPI lab since 2021 and plans to continue her education to become a physician. In pursuing a career in medicine, she hopes to work towards addressing health disparities that affect underserved communities such as her own. She is currently the Project Director for an R01 funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA057630, PIs: Shover, Goodman-Meza).

Caitlin Molina, BS, BA

Caitlin Molina, BS, BA was born and raised in Southern California. She attended Chapman University, where she graduated with dual degrees in Biology and Spanish. After her introduction to harm reduction while working as a street medicine EMT, Caitlin joined Drug Checking Los Angeles in late 2022 as a Project Director. She plans to continue this important work in harm reduction as the first physician in her family. Usually, you can find this salsera out dancing, meandering with her dog Huxley, or trying out new recipes.

Morgan Godvin, BA

Morgan Godvin is an internationally recognized expert in drug policy and harm reduction. She brings deep lived experience to her work, having survived opioid addiction and several years in federal prison before becoming a researcher. In her home state of Oregon, she served on multiple state commissions, informing substance use policy and overseeing grantmaking. Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, she has lived, worked, and studied across the Global South. Between social media and publishing reported opinion pieces, her science communication efforts ensure research becomes action. Most recently, she conducted collaborative research in Portugal with the European Union Drugs Agency, in partnership with UCLA. Her focus areas include fentanyl, overdose, medications for opioid use disorder, and elevating the lived experience of people who use drugs. She has been with Drug Checking Los Angeles since April of 2024.

Megan Grabill, BA

Adam Koncsol, MPA

Adam Koncsol is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Policy and Management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. His research interests involve the intersection of harm reduction and population health, modification of risky substance use behaviors, and promotion of evidence-based policies for people who use and inject drugs more broadly. Adam has a master’s degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University’s School of Public & Environmental Affairs, where he focused on health industry regulation, health economics, statistics, and data analysis. Adam joined Drug Checking Los Angeles as a graduate student researcher in June 2024, where he is largely involved with field work, data analytics, and dissemination of drug checking findings.

Megan Grabill is a PhD student in Psychological and Medical Anthropology at UCLA. Her research interests include palliative and pastoral care, phenomenology, medical ethics, and harm reduction. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Comparative Literature from Oberlin College. Prior to graduate school, she was a Research Coordinator in the Mixed Methods Research Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. At UCLA, she has worked under Dr. Nina Harawa and Dr. Gabe Edwards on the MEPS-EX study, which promotes PrEP uptake and adherence for individuals transitioning out of incarceration. Megan joined Drug Checking Los Angeles in June 2025.

Meet the Team!