2025 Advanced Training in Problem Gambling: Day 1

Dr. Serena King received her M.A and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is a Licensed Psychologist. She is Full Professor of Psychology at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She publishes widely in addiction, mental health, and gambling. Her published work has appeared in journals such as Addiction, Public Health, International Gambling Studies, Journal of Gambling Studies, and Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.  She has an active research and clinical agenda with a variety of collaborations in the areas of gambling, gaming disorder, and substance use. Dr. King was the recipient of an early career research grant from the International Center for Responsible Gaming and has served as a consultant for grants from the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Minnesota Alliance on Problem Gambling.  Dr. King has led several community-level and large-scale research studies on problem gambling, and developed prevention and outreach programs in the Southeast Asian Refugee community of Minnesota. She conducts trainings for individuals, agencies, and treatment centers.  Dr. King developed the first formal collaboration between the Hazelden-Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies and an undergraduate psychology program and cares deeply about training the next generation of addiction and mental health professionals.  She develops psychoeducational materials for community leaders and health care professionals in the areas of addiction, mental health, and problem gambling.

Michelle L. Malkin, JD, PhD, directs the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative (GRPI) at East Carolina University, where she also serves as an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology. Her research examines how gambling affects individuals, families, and communities — with a focus on behavioral risks and gambling-related harms in under-studied populations. Dr. Malkin’s scholarship bridges research, policy, and practice to promote evidence-based responses to gambling harm. She has earned national recognition, including awards from the National Council on Problem Gambling and multiple honors from ECU for innovation, research excellence, and community engagement. She is the creator of the Gambling-Motivated Crime Diversion Checklist, an innovative tool used to guide criminal justice interventions and diversion programs, and co-creator of the Emerging Adult Gambling Screen (EAGS), a gambling-related harm screening tool specifically designed and validated for adults under the age of 25. 

Dr. Fong is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

Dr. Fong completed his undergraduate and medical school at Northwestern University in Chicago. He then came to UCLA and finished his residency in adult general psychiatry in 2002 and was the first accredited addiction psychiatry fellow at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute (2002-2004).

He is the co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program (UGSP). The purpose of this program is to examine the underlying causes and clinical characteristics of gambling disorder in order to develop effective, evidence-based treatment strategies.

Since 2009, he has been the director of the UCLA Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship, a one-year accredited program that provides clinical training in addiction psychiatry.

Finally, he is part of the faculty leadership of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, a multidisciplinary effort to examine the full impact of cannabis on the body, mind and brain.