| New NAADAC Leadership Takes Over Nation's Largest Addiction-focused Professional Association |
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| Tuesday, 25 September 2012 10:35 |
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Talented Professionals From Around the Nation Take the Reins For Immediate Release
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The nation's largest association focused on the professional development, ethics and education of addiction-related professionals has a new leadership team, including the new President, Robert C. Richards, MA, CADC III, NCAC II, from Eugene, Ore. Richards serves as Director two treatment facilities in Eugene Oregon, a 22 bed residential detoxification facility and a 26 bed long term residential facility for men. During his more than 25 years as an addiction professional he has worked as a counselor, clinical supervisor, administrator and educator. He is a past president of AADACO, (the Oregon Association of Addiction Professionals) and served on that board for nearly 14 years. He is a past member of CAAP, the ATTC founded Consortium for the Advancement of Addiction Professionals and has been a member of various state and local groups and taskforces including a detoxification taskforce and a heroin task force. He has also served as a peer reviewer during numerous site reviews for the State of Oregon Office of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Richards is an experienced trainer specializing in sociology of addiction, cultural aspects of addiction, advanced counseling skills and other topics. "I believe that as addiction professionals, our first priority must be the client. However, as a membership organization, the first responsibility of NAADAC officers and board members must be our members," said Richards, in a statement. "During these difficult times our country is going through, our profession has been impacted more than many others. As an organization, NAADAC has not been immune to those impacts nor have we ignored them. We are the largest professional organization in America that advocates for, works for and provides services to our profession. If we are to endure as a profession and an organization (and we will), it is going to require the utmost in teamwork, advocacy, strategic planning and strong fiscal stewardship. I renew my commitment to all those needs as well as working to ensure that NAADAC continues to offer the highest level of credentialing, education and other services to our members." Also elected to the Executive Committee are: President-Elect: Kirk Bowden, PhD, MAC, LISAC, NCC, LPC Treasurer: John Lisy, LICDC, OCPS II, LISW-S, LPCC-S Secretary: Thurston S. Smith, CCS, NCACI, ICADC Mid-Atlantic Regional Vice President: Ron Pritchard, CSAC, CAS Mid South Regional Vice President: Sherri Layton, MBA, LCDC, CCS Re-elected to the Executive Committee are: Northeast Regional Vice President: Barbara Fox, LADC, - Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor Northwest Regional Vice President: Gregory J. Bennett, LAT NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, is the largest membership organization serving addiction counselors, educators and other addiction-focused health care professionals, who specialize in addiction prevention, treatment and education.
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Hailing from Gilbert, Ariz., Dr. Kirk Bowden currently serves as the NAADAC regional vice president of the Southwest region. He served on NAADAC’s National Addiction Studies and Standards Committee - a group committed to establishing best practices for addiction studies programs and as a NAADAC continuing education auditor. He has also served on the editorial boards of both the Addiction Professional and Counselor magazines - NAADAC’s former national publications. Dr. Bowden was honored by NAADAC at the 2011 National Conference in San Diego, Calif., with the 2011 President’s Award. He was recognized by the Arizona NAADAC affiliate AzAADAC as the Advocate of the Year for 2010. His history of service to AzAADAC includes state board member, ethics chair and Central Chapter president elect and president.
John Lisy, from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, currently serves as the Chair of the NAADAC Ad Hoc Committee on EC/Board Organization and Regional Structure. He served NAADAC as Mid Central Regional Vice President – September 2007 to September 2011 and as a Regional Vice President served on the Finance Committee. A committed advocate for the field he was a member of the Public Policy Committee – October 2000 to November 2007. John was awarded the Advocate of the Year by NAADAC at the Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. on March 8, 2005. He also coordinated the NAADAC Alcohol and Other Drug Workforce Development Project in Ohio from March 2004 to January 2008.
Thurston Smith, currently living in Memphis, Tenn., has been in civil service for nearly fourteen years and is employed by the Veterans Health Administration as an outpatient chemical dependency center program manager. He has held numerous leadership roles within his community and in the addictions profession. He is the former Director for Client and Prevention Services for the ACCESSNetwork, and is the 1998 graduate of Leadership Beaufort, a civic program of Beaufort, South Carolina's Chamber of Commerce. Thurston received the Key to the City from the late Mayor Larry Abernathy of Clemson, S.C., was appointed to the Nancy Moore Thurmond Alcohol and Drug Abuse Policy Initiative, was a former candidate for city council and presidential delegate in November 2005, and has provided oral testimony before the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute. He has served as a field reviewer and technical consultant for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA - CSAT); the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (SC-DAODAS); IRETA, the Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addictions - the Northeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center; and as the S.E. Liaison to the Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (SAnC - Morehouse School of Medicine).
Living in Virginia Beach, Va., Ron Pritchard has been active at the affiliate level, serving as a delegate to the NAADAC Board of Directors and President of VAADAC, the NAADAC Virginia affiliate. He helped bring together VAADAC and representatives from many of public and private prevention organizations and recovery-focused groups to participate in the Virginia Summer Institute for Addiction Studies. He represented NAADAC at Mid-Atlantic TRICARE marketing meetings, instituted discounted state membership fees to new NAADAC applicants at annual training events and promoted NAADAC at the annual Oxford House conference. Pritchard has attended last three NAADAC national conferences, providing input to policy makers regarding NAADAC constituents in Virginia. He designed, edited and published the VAADAC Views newsletter for three years.
Sherri Layton, Boerne, Texas, is a strong advocate for the addiction counseling profession, NAADAC and the Texas affiliate, TAAP. She continues to engage in local, state and national legislative activities that promote treatment and protect our credentials and has served on the NAADAC Public Policy Committee since 2008. Layton has worked in the profession for 35 years and currently serves on the Board of Directors for TAAP. She serves on the TAAP annual state conference committee and is part of the national outreach effort to develop membership in the three adjoining states that form the Mid-South Region with Texas. Layton has always demonstrated exceptional organization skills and is a team player, never losing focus of NAADAC’s mission to educate, develop and serve addiction professionals. She possesses the energy and passion to accompany her great ideas in improving the profession and collaborating with others.
In the summer of 2006 a group of concerned addiction professionals revitalized the NAADAC Connecticut affiliate and in the fall of 2006 this group, along with Conn. NAADAC members, elected me as their president. Bobbi Fox, from Manchester, Conn., served as president for two terms until 2010 and helped organize affiliate involvement in Recovery Month events. While President, she also served as chair for the NAADAC awards committee and represented the affiliate on the NAADAC board of directors. In 2010, Fox was elected as the Northeast regional vice president for NAADAC and currently serve on its executive committee as well as the student membership and the military and veterans membership committees. Fox was also appointed to serve as a commissioner, representing NAADAC, on the newly formed National Addiction Studies Accreditation Commission.
Gregory Bennett, living in Powell, Wyo., has been a member of NAADAC since 2005 and has been actively involved with ongoing advocacy efforts within the profession. Bennett is the co-founder of the student organization, Coalition of Addiction Students and Professionals Pursuing Advocacy, which was awarded the Emerging Leaders of the Year. Gregory served on the Public Policy Committee, Political Action Committee and the Student Affairs Committee. Gregory re-affiliated the Wyoming Association of Addiction Professionals and served as the President for three years. Gregory was seated as the Northwest Regional Vice President in September of 2011 to the present time.