Herbert Linn, MS

Program Director

Organization:

West Virginia University Health Sciences Center

Department:

Office of Health Affairs

Classification:

Faculty

• MS, Industrial (Mining) Safety, Marshall University
• BA, English, Fairmont State College

Linn HI.  The West Virginia Rapid Response Project. A Community Response Showcase presentation at
the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit.  Atlanta, GA.  April 22, 2019.

Linn HI. Bridging the Research-to-Practice Gap: Shoe-leather public health and the knowledge 
broker. Plenary presentation at the 2018 National Occupational Injury Research Symposium, October 
16, 2018, Morgantown WV.

Linn HI. WV Prevention for States Rapid Response Project (RRP): State-wide Naloxone Distribution. 
Presented at CDC Prevention for States Site Visit to WV, July 12-13, 2017.  Charleston, WV.

Linn HI, Gurka KK. Opioid Overdose Prevention Programs with Take-Home Naloxone in WV. Presentations 
given at each of six regional meetings of the WV Governor’s Substance Abuse Regional Task Force.  
January-February 2015.

Linn H, Gurka KK. Narcan (Naloxone) Programs in West Virginia: Past, Present, and Future. Oral 
presentation presented at the Northern Panhandle Public Health Conference at the Oglebay Resort in 
Wheeling, WV on June 10, 2016.

Linn H, Gurka KK. Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) Programs in West Virginia: 
presentation presented at the Wheeling-Ohio County Community Stakeholder
Meeting in Wheeling, WV on January 27, 2016.

Gurka KK, Linn H. Feasibility of an opioid overdose prevention program with take-home naloxone in 
southern West Virginia. Oral presentation presented to the West Virginia Behavioral Health Planning 
Committee on January 15, 2015.

Gurka KK, Macmadu A, Linn HI.  Feasibility of an Opioid Overdose Prevention Program (OOPP) with 
Peer-Distributed Naloxone in Rural WV. Presentation at SAVIR 2015, New Orleans, LA, March 11, 2015.

McSwain CM, Chester A, Dino G, Linn HI, Gurka K, Hanks S, Jarrett T, Kuhn S, McMillion M, Branch 
RM. The Role of Knowledge Broker in Community Engaged Research. Poster presented at the 6ᵗʰ Annual
A Science of Community Engaged Research: Future Directions Conference in Bethesda,
MD, August 22-23, 2013.

• Vice President’s “Go First” Award for WVU ICRC Team 2017 
• WVU Chancellor’s Professional 2014
• Non-Teaching Award for Excellence 2014

Herb Linn is a Program Director in the WVU Office of Health Affairs.  Prior to joining the Office of Health Affairs, he worked as Program Director of Collaboration and Communication in the Health Research Center in the WVU School of Public Health.  He initially joined WVU in 2011 as the Outreach Coordinator and later Deputy Director of the WVU Injury Control Research Center (ICRC).  During his 10-year WVU career, he has been primarily engaged in efforts to address the opioid overdose epidemic in the state.  He engaged and supported local and state partners in planning and implementing overdose education and naloxone distribution programs, and programs that provide peer recovery support services in local communities in high-risk WV counties while with the ICRC.  More recently, he is leading an effort to plan and implement SUD programs in WV hospital emergency departments.  Prior to joining WVU, Linn retired from a 25-year career in federal government which culminated in his role as the Associate Director for Communications for the Division of Safety Research of the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown.  He also worked as a Claims Examiner for the Veterans Administration in Huntington, WV in the late 1970s.  Mr. Linn has a BA in English from Fairmont State College (1976) and a MS in Industrial and Mining Safety from Marshall University (1986).