Craig Rush, MA, PhD, directs Graduate and Post-Graduate Training Development for the CCTS, including the TL1 program. He is passionate about training and mentoring for pre-doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty members, and in 2024 received the Gerald Supinksi Excellence in Mentorship Award.

He is a Professor of Behavioral Science and Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs in the UK College of Medicine and directs an institutional training grant (T32) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Over the course of his career, he has developed extensive expertise in experimental psychology and human behavioral pharmacology, including medications development for substance use disorder. Specifically, he has determined the initial efficacy of putative pharmacotherapies from diverse pharmacological classes including agonist replacement therapy, dopamine antagonists, GABAA receptor modulators, and novel medication combinations.

As a principal investigator or co-investigator on several University- and NIH-funded R grants, Dr. Rush laid the groundwork at the University of Kentucky for conducting human laboratory experiments and clinical trials designed to determine the efficacy of medications for stimulant-use disorders.