Sheila Specker, MD

I received my BA in chemistry from the College of St.Catherine, MN, and completed medical school here at the University of Minnesota. I completed my residency in family practice from the University of Wisconsin, a residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in addiction medicine from the University of Minnesota.

I am an Associate Professor and addiction psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. I am Program Director for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship which trains physicians of all specialties in addiction and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. My research interests include: substance abuse and related compulsive behaviors with co-morbid conditions, especially in women; medication development for substances of abuse, and health care professionals with substance user psychiatric disorders. I am also co-investigator on the use of neuroimaging approaches to identify circuit abnormalities in addiction. Pharmacotherapies for the treatment of cocaine use disorder has also been a focus of research. I have also given grand rounds presentations nationwide and have presented both nationally and internationally at more than 70 conferences.

I am board certified in both family practice and psychiatry and certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as a physician specialist in substance abuse and by the American Board of Psychiatry in addiction psychiatry.

I was selected as a Top Doctor in Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021.

• Top Doctors in Minnesota by Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021.

• Addiction Medicine Fellowship Directors’ Association
• American Association of Addiction Psychiatry
• Minnesota Psychiatric Society
• American Psychiatric Association Minnesota Women in Psychiatry
• American Society of Addiction Medicine
• Co-Chair, Drug Terminology Task Force
• IDA

• Substance abuse and related compulsive behaviors with co-morbid conditions, especially in women
• Medication development for substances of abuse
• Health Care Professionals with substance user psychiatric disorders