Arkansas Children’s Launches National Center for Opioid Research & Clinical Effectiveness in Partnership with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office

Leadership Hired, Construction Underway on Arkansas Children’s campus; Website Featuring Drone Footage is live at archildrens.org/NCOR

LITTLE ROCK, AR. (Aug. 20, 2025) – Arkansas Children’s and the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office are rewriting the narrative to protect future generations from the opioid crisis.

After announcing its creation in 2023, the partners have begun construction to build The National Center for Opioid Research & Clinical Effectiveness (NCOR) on the Arkansas Children’s Hospital campus and hired its director, Dr. Alicia Allen, a distinguished behavioral epidemiologist and expert in opioid use disorder.

NCOR will be a first-of-its-kind center dedicated to understanding the effects of the opioid crisis and other substance misuse on the fetus, newborns, developing children and adolescents, as well as pregnant and parenting individuals. The 65,000-square-foot facility, part of Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI), will offer research and community outreach, aiming to empower affected families and improve health outcomes. The NCOR building will open in 2027, and research infrastructure development and outreach are accelerating.

“The opioid crisis has profoundly impacted Arkansas families, a reality we witness daily across our NICU, clinics and ER,” said Arkansas Children’s President & CEO Marcy Doderer. “By establishing this center, we are boldly advancing a healthier future for children across our region and nation. The brilliant capacity of our dedicated team, both current and future, will deliver a better today and healthier tomorrow for every child affected by this crisis.”

The center will be anchored to maternal and child health with a focus on research, developing prevention and treatment programs, and community outreach and engagement.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin awarded the $75 million center $55 million of opioid and vaping settlement funds, allowing for ambitious and groundbreaking research, and a dedicated NCOR building on the Arkansas Children’s Hospital campus in Little Rock. Arkansas Children’s is investing the remaining $20 million to make the center possible.

Leadership Hired

Alicia Allen, PhD, MPH, has been named director for NCOR, providing leadership for the strategy and operations of NCOR. She previously served at the University of Arizona and is a behavioral epidemiologist with extensive expertise in opioid use disorder, particularly in women’s health and substance misuse during the perinatal period.

As the founder and director of the Recovery through Engaging and Empowering Women (RENEW) Research Team at the University of Arizona, Allen’s work integrated epidemiological and clinical trial methods to understand and address addiction in women of reproductive age.

Dr. Allen’s research aligns strongly with Arkansas Children’s mission, and at NCOR, she will help improve child health through maternal-focused interventions. Her work addresses critical gaps in understanding how female-specific biological and psychosocial factors shape the course of opioid use disorder and its impact on families, with significant implications for both prevention and recovery.

Dr. Allen recently received the New Innovator (DP2) Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work exploring the role of hormones and infant caregiving activities on opioid misuse during the early postpartum period.

At NCOR, she will lead a team developing the state-of-the-art research infrastructure to study how the opioid crisis affects children and families, developing evidence-based prevention and treatment programs physicians can use for their patients and building partnerships to supplement existing prevention efforts across the state. She emphasized NCOR’s commitment to supporting education and sharing knowledge about opioid and substance use disorders and informing state and national policies to improve child health outcomes.

“The NCOR team is dedicated to reducing the stigma around opioid use disorder so that families feel empowered to seek treatment and sustain recovery,” Allen said. “NCOR's research and community outreach will improve the trajectory of children’s health and give families a healthier tomorrow.” 

Some innovative research studies planned or in progress include:

Eat, Sleep, Console Care Approach: Intervention aimed at improving outcomes for newborns with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS).

Following Baby Back Home: Expanding an existing post-birth hospitalization home-visiting program to support families with infants experiencing NOWS.

Game-based Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Prescription Drug Misuse: This school-based intervention project enhances an existing Opioid Misuse App by improving its functionality and incorporating an educational component for caregivers, delivered through email or text.

As the construction continues, the NCOR team plans to train at least 150 healthcare providers across Arkansas to identify and respond to children and youth at risk due to opioid and substance use disorder exposure. The goal is to equip them with evidence-based tools to provide timely interventions and connect families to long-term support.

This week also marks the launch of NCOR’s website, a tool for community engagement and education.

To learn more about NCOR on Arkansas Children’s blog, see drone footage of the site work and view renderings, visit archildrens.org/NCOR.

ABOUT ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S

Arkansas Children's is the only health care system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' 850,000 children. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals with 361 licensed beds, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs — all focused on fulfilling a promise to define and deliver unprecedented child health. Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons (ACS); and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Arkansas Children’s is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in seven pediatric subspecialties (2024-2025): Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Neonatal Care, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Pulmonology & Lung Surgery. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the northwest Arkansas region, is a Level IV pediatric trauma center. ACNW operates an inpatient unit that will expand in 2026; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can deliver on its promise of unprecedented child health. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

# # #