DBSA Associate Board Member
Dennis Sholler obtained his BA in Cell Biology and Neuroscience from Rutgers University and PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he studied the neurobiology of substance use disorders. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he studied the behavioral pharmacology of cannabis and cannabinoids. Since then, Dennis has worked as a medical science liaison in a variety of pharmaceutical research and development settings, supporting the development of medications to treat schizophrenia and mood disorders. During his career, mental health advocacy has been a throughline. He served on the Board of Directors for the Bay Area Council on Drugs and Alcohol in Southeast Texas, serving as a Board Chair. He has presented at advocacy conferences including the Mental Health America and NAMI Maryland annual conferences. Dennis founded When Men Are Silent, a Baltimore-based, community-driven men’s mental health initiative founded on a central paradox that when men’s mental health struggles go unspoken, communities suffer; yet when men are silent through meditation, this stillness brings men’s mental health challenges to light and becomes a path toward awareness, compassion, and recovery.
