Dr. Holder is a Senior Emeritus Scientist of the Prevention Research Center (PRC) of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Berkeley, California. He was director for 18 years. PRC is a national research centers sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Holder has explored two major alcohol research areas: prevention of alcohol problems, and the cost and benefits of alcoholism treatment. He was one of the first researchers to undertake controlled studies on the economic benefits of alcoholism treatment. He has authored a number of research papers on alcoholism treatment cost-offset (the potential of alcoholism treatment to lead to reductions in overall health care cost which can reduce or offset the cost of alcoholism treatment).
Dr. Holder’s published work has addressed a number of public policy studies at the community, state, and national levels including the impact of changes in retail sales of wine and spirits on drinking and alcohol-involved traffic crashes. His policy studies also include assessments of the prevention potential of alcohol server liability, mandated server training, and environmental strategies as part of comprehensive approaches to prevention. Holder is a leader in a systems perspective to prevention. He has written a book on this subject entitled, Alcohol and the Community: A Systems Approach to Prevention, Cambridge University Press (1997
Dr. Holder was chosen, by a board of distinguished international scientists, as the recipient of the 1995 Jellinek Memorial Award for his research on social and economic factors of alcohol consumption, and the impact of changes in alcohol availability on alcohol problems. He received the President’s Award from the Society for Prevention Research in 2001 for scientific leadership, and in 2005, Dr. Holder was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism, the first such award by this organization since 1996.
