Dr. Ron Simeone is a sociologist by training, and received his doctorate from the University at Albany in 1979. He is a leading authority on drug policy research, with twenty years experience in the field. He has published on the epidemiology of drug use, on needs assessment and service capacity planning, and on the effectiveness of treatment. He is well known for his work on hidden populations. Dr. Simeone conducted the initial research for the Random Access Monitoring of Narcotics Abusers (RAMONA) program several years ago in Cook County and now directs the RAMONA component of the National Treatment Outcomes Monitoring System (NTOMS). He developed the Life History Interview (LHI) that will be used on the NTOMS project. Dr. Simeone serves as a consultant for strategy evaluation with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and was one of the principal architects of the Performance Measures of Effectiveness (PME) System developed by the agency. He held policy-level positions in two State of New York agencies before becoming a private consultant in 1993. He is now Chief Scientist with Carnevale Associates.