Layla Bouzoubaa

Trump administration rolls back $2 billion mental health, addiction grant cuts Sweeping cuts to mental health and addiction programs worth more than $2 billion are being reversed. After a political backlash from Republicans and Democrats, the grant money will be restored.

Thanks to public pressure, 2B in vital mental health and addiction funds are to be reinstated - advocacy still matters #drugsky

www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

That’s so sad 😞. There are going to be very reckless people on the internet.

Reddit and TikTok - with the help of AI - are reshaping how researchers understand substance use Chatter in social media communities sheds light on a hidden population of substance users.

I used to assume that when people who use drugs went online, it was mostly about dysfunction. I was wrong. There is rawness,support, safety, connection. I wrote this piece to challenge our assumptions and share how AI helped push our understanding further. #academicsky #drugsky
tinyurl.com/4r7em5wx

WHY do people ask you for a 5-7 point response scale, then during analysis just dichotomise the responses? Why make respondents deal with the cognitive burden of actually thinking through their beliefs when you're just going to squash it down anyway? I see it every day! It's stupid! #statsky #episky

Learning more about the pervasiveness of stigma in the clinical settings at #AMIA2025 makes me feel we need to be doing more to listen and trust patients while also making considerations in the models we deploy. Great piece.

if you are considering submitting an application for this position, you still have just under 2 weeks to do so

any and all suitable candidates, please apply. everyone else, pls share with your networks

Highlight from #AMIA2025 Day 2 is from the keynote from Dr.Kedar Mate: What can we do by next Tuesday? I love this reminder that we should be setting goals that can be bold and specific so that we can actually attain them. It’s actionable and helps us identify what to prioritize.

Thank you!

‘Wellness’ and ‘court’ are two words that should never be found together. More evidence of the failures of the Parker administration for a population that needs support the most.
The visualizations are awesome tho!

Today’s #AMIA2025 highlight was a storytelling workshop by @kbjohnsonmd.bsky.social and @gezzerortegamdmph.bsky.social hit close to home! We use storytelling to teach, to design, to communicate. But ensuring patient stories are actually heard is still an open problem. 🤔
Where do we go from here?

I can’t ban laptops so this term I introduced discussion activities that are given randomly throughout the term. In class only, no-makeups. The activity is based on in-class/reading material and students are selected at random to respond to the activity. The whole class gets credit for discussions.

a cat wearing glasses and a bow tie is looking at a laptop . ALT: a cat wearing glasses and a bow tie is looking at a laptop .

Me: “lemme just do this quick feasibility check…”
My study: “what if I revealed five new constructs instead?” #academicsky

I’ll be headed to Atlanta this week for #AMIA2025 with a poster: “Phenotypes of Stigma Expressed by People Who Use Drugs on Reddit.” Looking to meet others thinking about health, AI, and social impact… and to see what life after the PhD might look like 👀 hmu #HealthInformatics #NLP #AcademicSky

I didn't think I needed mentorship training—but it reshaped my approach “I have noticed students are now quicker to ask for help,” this Ph.D. student writes

This a great quick read and, most importantly, a reminder for #AcademicSky ! On that note, if anyone has any good references for mentorship, I welcome them 🙏🏼: www.science.org/content/arti...

🚨 Opportunities from @athnlp.bsky.social : @annarogers.bsky.social shared a PhD opening @ ITU for anyone interested in peer review and LLM + a postdoc @ AAU on real-world LLM evaluation #NLProc #AcademicSky

Aerial photo of UW campus with Mt. Rainier in the background

Job alert! 🌸🏔️ The UW iSchool is hiring for *two* TT faculty positions, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, broadly defined. It's pretty here!

Applications due November 15th 2025 (priority deadline).

Link: apply.interfolio.com/171020

Some of y’all forget the reason we have food safety regulations is because companies used to do things like adding chalk to spoiled milk so it looked normal.

Regulations don’t exist because governments enjoy them. They exist because pure unadulterated capitalism would kill us.

ASM Issues Joint Statement Calling For Secretary Kennedy Resignation The American Society for Microbiology joined national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations to call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Protecting public health is our responsibility as physicians, scientists and patient advocates. It is also the responsibility of our elected officials, and we call for their support at this critical moment to protect the health of the nation.

Thanks to @asm.org and colleagues for stadning up for public health. Call Congress today and demand Kennedy's resignation
asm.org/press-releas...

Already on the mailing list!

Btw Alberto, I taught info viz for the first time this year and leaned heavily on The Truthful Art. Hope I did you proud 🥹 thanks for this resource

If I can sneak away for a couple days, I’ll be there ! It’s be good to visit and reconnect with my UM family and
@homahm.bsky.social 🤗

Yesss. This precisely why i think things (in the us) will never change. Unis, in large part, don’t reward translational efforts. Just more and more papers that feed the publication monster. I wish there were more incentives to write blogs or workshops or podcasts to help make knowledge less siloed

Hot take: AI therapy chatbots are medical devices and should be regulated by the FDA.

If you know an unhoused person, and you could house them, now'd be a good time to do your part because the government is about to make them the scapegoats for all crime. I did my part. Most of the people I helped off the streets or out of insecure housing before I left the US are still housed.

Update on hidden prompts in papers targeting LLM reviews: ICML 2025 PCs react.

icml.cc/Conferences/...

"[LinkedIn] is a digital motor pool full of self-appointed visionaries doing donut in the mud, yelling about scaling, optimising, and disrupting, while actively failing to comprehend anything larger than their own reflection in a ring light." 🔥🔥🔥

I’m so excited that EACL next year will be in my favoritist place, my Morocco 🇲🇦❤️!!

🎓 Looking for PhD opportunities in #NLProc for a start in Spring 2026?

🗒️ Add your expression of interest to join @copenlu.bsky.social here by 20 July: forms.office.com/e/HZSmgR9nXB

Selected candidates will be invited to submit a DARA fellowship application with me: daracademy.dk/fellowship/f...

if you've had an NIH grant terminated, I want to hear about it. Signal: katherinejwu.12

PhD Position in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases and climate change Climate change is reshaping our world, and its impact on the spread of infectious diseases is profound. Rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increasingly frequent extreme weather ...

I’m looking for a PhD student to work at the intersection of modelling infectious diseases and climate change.

Deadline of applications: 31st of May, but applications are evaluated on a rolling basis.

Please repost and help me spread the words!

euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/311728