With an MA in clinical pychology, and as former CEO of Action on Addiction, Nick Barton has advised government on treatment delivery, family support and workforce development. In 1998, he founded For Families, driving its national roll out of M-PACT (Moving Parents And Children Together) as an evidence-based response to children living with parental substance misuse and addiction. In 2008, he received an honorary doctorate from University of Bath.
David Best is professor of criminology at Sheffield Hallam University. His key areas of expertise are the relationship between drugs and crime, and desistance from offending and recovery from drug and alcohol problems. He has worked in academic research at Monash University in Australia, Strathclyde University in Glasgow, the Institute of Psychiatry in London, Birmingham University and the University of West of Scotland. He also worked in the Prime Minister’s Unit.
For over two decades, Deirdre Boyd has been a leader in the field of recovery from addiction, with an international reputation. Based in the UK, she heads up DB Recovery Resources which supplies a daily news service to 9,400 people across the international alcohol/drug-treatment field on addiction recovery, publishes Recovery Plus e-mag (2million guaranteed view pa) and print journal (6,000 print run), and organises Recovery Plus training and networking events including the UK’s most successful conference on addiction recovery. Read more.
Mary Brett is a trustee of the Cannabis Skunk Sense charity and author of Drugs: It’s just not worth it. She provides secretariat for the All-party Parliamentary Group on Cannabis and Children and has given evidence on prevention to various Home Affairs Select Committees on Drugs, particularly on Breaking the cycle. She was a biology teacher (30 years at a grammar school for boys), a member of the Prisons and Addictions working party at the Centre for Policy Studies and a former vice president of Eurad, Europe Against Drugs.
Michelle Chacon RN is a certified TMS clinical operator at Sierra Tucson rehab and has been a nurse for 19 years. She has worked in behavioral health the past 6 years and is passionate about mental health and wellness for all individuals.
Daniela Collins – PhD, MSc Mental Health, PGcert(Ed), BSc (Hons) Nurs, FHEA, RNMHL1, LPE Nurs, RNT, Professional Performance Coach – has several awards for excellence in practice, including Middlesex University Teaching Fellowship 2015. She is senior lecturer in mental-health nursing at Middlesex University London and a teaching fellow of the Higher Education Academy, London. With 27 years’ experience, Daniela leads on the MSc in dual diagnosis, the only one in the UK, and supervises MSc and BSc students in substance misuse research.
Camilla Crichton-Stuart is a recovery coach, relationship systems coach and life coach. The bulk of her work is 1:1 coaching with special interest in supporting addicts in their recovery. Camilla is an ORSC practitioner (Organisation and Relationship Systems Coach). She is trained to work with couples, families and any other relationship system. For this work, she mostly co-facilitates with a fellow ORSC practitioner.
Carlo DiClemente PhD is professor at the Psychology Department, University of Maryland and co-creator, with Dr James Prochaska, of the Transtheoretical Model of Change, which helps predict treatment outcomes and allows more people to enter treatment at earlier stages of readiness. He co-authored Substance Abuse Treatment and the Stages of Change, Group Treatment for Substance Abuse and How Addictions Develop and Addicted People Recover. He led Project Match, the world’s largest research into the impact of alcohol treatment.
Annette Dale-Perera has worked in addiction for over 30 years. She has a management consultancy (adpconsultancyuk) and is a lead consultant on an international project on quality drug treatment standards for the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and on development for CGL. Annette is also a government adviser (ACMD) and a trustee of 3 charities. Previously, she was an NHS strategic director of addiction and offender health, executive director of quality at the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, director of policy for Scoda/DrugScope, research fellow at the University of London and a practitioner in therapeutic communities and community drug services.
Carlton Erickson PhD is our favourite neuroscientist. Studying the effects of alcohol on the brain for over 45 years, he is the Pfizer Centennial Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Addiction Science Research & Education Center, University of Texas. He has published over 150 scientific and professional articles, co-edited and co-authored books and is associate editor of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. He has spoken to about 70,000 professionals and people in recovery since 1978. Read more.
Philip Fisher is CEO of Fisher Associates, an interventionist and specialist in sober companions. He plans to visit and become familiar with the work of all rehabs across the UK this year, integrating this ongoing understanding into his role as head of sales and marketing at DB Recovery Resources. He considers his career in business as an integral aid in understanding and supporting personalities in the private and charitable sectors.
Rebecca Flood MHS, LCADC, NCACII, BRI II is immediate past president of AIS, the Association of Intervention Specialists, and sits on the board of NAATP, the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. She is CEO of New Directions for Women, headquartered in Los Angeles and working internationally. Her four decades of experience in the health care industry started with 25 years at Seabrook House in New Jersey where she became its vice president of treatment services. Becky will fly in to speak at Recovery Plus 2017.
Dr Michael V Genovese is medical director of Sierra Tucson, serves as a Diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and The American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine. He was a Fellow in the department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at North Shore University Hospital, New York. He has taught resident physicians and medical students at Winthrop University Hospital. He also qualified as a lawyer and is a member of the New York Bar Association.
Laura Graham is an independent consultant undertaking research, writing and policy and strategy development on addiction recovery, suicide prevention and unpaid carer issues. She is the founder of Cure the NHS-Lambeth, and is a columnist at Independent Living (lgrahamresearch@gmail.com). Before these, Laura worked at the Home Office as a researcher advising on drug policy.
Dr Andrea Grubb Barthwell MD, FASAM, is the founder and CEO of Two Dreams and the CEO of Encounter Medical Group. President George W Bush nominated and the US Senate confirmed her as deputy director for demand reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy from January 2002-July 2004. Dr Barthwell was a principal adviser in the Executive Office of the President on policies aimed at reducing the demand for illicit drugs. She is a past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Paul Hokemeyer JD, PhD is an internationally recognised expert on cultural competency in the treatment of mental health and addictive disorders. He is senior clinical adviser to Caron Ocean Drive, a licensed marriage and family therapist, former attorney, judicial law clerk and law review editor. He holds a BA in economics, MA in clinical psychology, PhD in psychology and a doctorate in law (JD). He is on the Dr Oz Show panel of experts, is a Fox News analyst, and appears on Good Morning America, The Today Show and more.
Shahroo Izadi is training development manager at Emerging Horizons. She also delivers workshops for The School of Life and support groups for the Amy Winehouse Foundation in addition to her private practice in London. Shahroo is a psychology postgraduate with experience in delivering substance misuse treatment in clinical and charitable healthcare settings. She is committed to conducting research and developing evidence-based protocol on compassionate recovery-focused treatment for problematic drug and alcohol use.
Valerie Kading NP, MSN, DNP serves as the associate director of medical operations for Sierra Tucson. Previously, Valerie worked as an adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University, and practiced as a board certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner for 10 years in a community mental health clinic, working with patients with various mood disorders and co-occurring substance abuse diagnoses. Valerie specialises in working with perinatal women experiencing psychiatric illness – including their complex overlap with addiction and recovery.
Habib Kadiri is research & information officer at the Institute of Alcohol Studies. Habib worked as a researcher and in media and communications before joining the IAS in 2012. He was editor of the regular online newsletter Alcohol Alert, which is free to read/download from the IAS website. To subscribe (free), email info@ias.org.uk to sign up to the mailing list.
Clare Kennedy is CEO of Cornerstone recovery services/ Kennedy Street Productions, with her actor husband Kevin Kennedy as co-director and co-founder. Brighton based, it offers free telephone advice, signposting to local recovery services, home-based detox and recovery programmes, and advice to the business sector. They also founded Kennedy Street Community Interest Company, to provide visual recovery events, a safe space for people to socialise and a family-feel restaurant (addictionmanagementuk@gmail.com).
Alexandre Laudet PhD is director of the Center for the Study of Addictions and Recovery at the National Development and Research Institutes, and a social psychologist. She provides training and consultancy to government and community-based agencies on promoting opportunities for sustained recovery. She regularly publishes in peer-reviewed journals, presents at national and international conferences, and serves on the editorial board of several scientific publications.
John Kelly BS Psychology (Summa Cum Laude) PhD is Harvard University’s first professor in addiction medicine, president of the American Psychological Association Society of Addiction Psychology and associate editor for Addiction and Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. He is also founder and director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, and served as a consultant to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, SAMHSA and the National Institutes of Health.
Mary Jo Mather is CEO of IC&RC – the International Credentialing &Reciprocity Consortium – which has 50,000 members worldwide and is the ‘gold standard’ of accreditation for professionals working in the drug & alcohol treatment/recovery field. She will fly to London to speak at the Recovery Plus conference on World Drug Day 26 (+27) June.
Dr Jane McGregor is a freelance trainer and lecturer at the Institute of Mental Health,
University of Nottingham. She holds a PhD in public health and worked in the NHS
and voluntary sector, mostly in the field of addiction treatment.
Tim McGregor is freelance consultant and trainer, and a mental-health practitioner of
many years’ standing. He has worked in the NHS and voluntary sector, most recently as a
commissioning adviser.
Dr Mike McPhillips is a psychiatrist, a physician with a degree in Medical Sciences from Cambridge University and a post-graduate degree in Medicine & Surgery from London University, followed by a 3-year psychiatric rotation at Charing Cross Hospital, London. After three years as a psychiatric registrar and lecturer at Imperial College Medical School, he became a consultant psychiatrist at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He entered private practice in 2003, and has written articles in The Lancet and The British Journal of Psychiatry.
Dr David Mee-Lee is senior vice president for The Change Companies and a psychiatrist, certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He has been chief editor of all editions of ASAM’s criteria, including The ASAM Criteria – Treatment Criteria for Addictive, Substance-Related, and Co-Occurring Conditions (3rd edition 2013). He has over 30 years’ experience in person-centred treatment and programme development for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use conditions.
Dr Joanne Neale BA(Hons), MA, CQSW, DPhil is Reader in Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research based in the National Addiction Centre and working across the Biomedical Research Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Jo has held positions at the University of Glasgow, the University of York, and Oxford Brookes University, where she was Professor of Public Health.
David Passfield is a senior employment law and health & safety expert at Peninsula Business Services, with over 20 years’ management experience. He helps business owners in all aspects of employment law, health & safety and staff management. He is keen to ensure that owners and managers get essential guidance and direction on how to effectively manage employees, whilst reducing the risk of litigation and increasing profitability.
George Powell is CEO and founder of Summit Diagnostics, with over 30 years’ experience in the clinical testing business, in both products and services. George serves on the boards of a number of laboratories and has expertise in lab start up, compliance, production and partnering with labs to assure compliance and cost containment. He is an avid supporter recovery locally and internationally – so much so that this year he became copublisher of Recovery Plus print journal..
Mandy Saligari MSc, NCAC (accred) is founder and CEO of Charter Harley Street – and more recently known as the star of C4’s In Therapy TV series. She also trained in Arizona under Pia Mellody in the Post Induction Therapy model: a trauma reduction-based methodology working with the inner child and unhealthy feelings carried into adulthood. Mandy entered treatment herself in 1990 and is now a relationship and parenting expert and a straight-talking speaker, both knowledgeable and hugely entertaining.
George Simon Jr, PhD is a clinical psychologist who has for 30 years studied manipulators and their victims, appearing on national TV and radio as an expert. His books include In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People; Character Disturbance: The Phenomenon of Our Age; The Judas Syndrome: Why Good People Do Awful Things; and more. Videos include Understanding Manipulation Tactics and Neurosis vs. Character Disturbance. Details at https://www.drgeorgesimon.com.
Louise A Stanger EdD, LCSW, CIP, CDWF is a clinician and interventionist who uses an invitational approach with complicated mental health, substance abuse, chronic pain and process addiction clients. Louise is published in the Huffington Post, Journal of Alcohol Studies, Sober World and other media. She is considered by Quit Alcohol as one of the Top 10 Interventionists in the US. Louise’s book Falling Up: A Memoir of Renewal is available on Amazon and Learn to Thrive: An Intervention Handbook is on her website.
Colleen Steiner Westling is a MA Art psychotherapist & supervisor, minded yoga therapist & supervisor trained to work with mental-health disorders. Her experience includes group and solo sessional work undertaken in a private setting. She can be contacted via the London Art Therapy Centre.
Anastasia Smith is communications manager at Food for the Brain Foundation, a charity whose mission is to generate awareness about the importance of nutrition in mental health. Its not-for-profit nutrition clinic, the Brain Bio Centre, has been supporting clients with mental health disorders, including addictions, for 13 years with its team of specialists. The charity will be delivering a talk this year at Recovery Plus, 26-27 June 2017.
Hilary Smith Connery MD, PhD is clinical director of the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her expertise includes treatment of opioid use disorders and co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders. She contributed to American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines for treatment of substance abuse.