The people behind SAM.

Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of Adolescent Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which he joined in 1984. Since that time, he has served as Director of the Substance Abuse Assessment/Intervention Team at The Johns Hopkins Hospital Adolescent Program and as Director of The Johns Hopkins Substance Abuse Faculty Development Programs. In February 1997, Dr. Adger was selected to fill the position of Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In July 1998, he returned to Johns Hopkins to resume his duties as a full-time faculty member.

From 1999-2005, he served as Co-Director of the Strategic Planning Initiative funded by HRSA and SAMHSA/CSAT to advise the federal government and others on improving and expanding

interdisciplinary education and training of health professionals in substance use disorders. He currently serves as principal investigator and project director of the HRSA-funded Leadership & Education in Adolescent Health project at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and as the faculty leader of the Florence Sabin College in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Adger also is a past president of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse and a past president of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

Dr. Adger continues a five-year study of residents’ knowledge, attitudes and skills in substance abuse. A major emphasis for him has been on building an infrastructure and funding base for a new program, “The Family Program for the Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse.” He is also the Associate Director of the Strategic Planning Initiative for a project funded by HRSA to develop a strategic plan which will advise the federal government and others on improving and expanding interdisciplinary and discipline-specific substance abuse disorders-related education and training in medicine, psychology, pharmacy, social work and allied health.

As National Executive Director of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Judge Arthur Burnett, Sr. operated as an advisor on many issues facing American youth including juvenile delinquency, neglect, abuse and the foster care system.

Judge Burnett, Sr. also served as the senior judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia where he heard cases involving neglect, abuse, termination of parental rights, and adoption. He was also the court’s community relations liaison judge, with the responsibility of preventing and reducing juvenile delinquency and promoting improvements in the foster care and adoption systems of the district.

Judge Burnett, Sr. began his law career in 1958 specializing in fraud, obscenity and public integrity criminal cases in the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the United States Department of Justice in the Criminal Division and serving as a special prosecutor for the U. S. Department of Justice. From 1965 to 1969, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C. where he prosecuted homicide and other cases, for nearly four years. In 1968 he became First Legal Adviser for the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department.

In 1969, Judge Burnett, Sr. was appointed the first African American United States Magistrate in the United States. He served until 1975 and then became the Legal Advisor for the United States Civil Service System. From 1977 to 1980, he was also a legal advisor to the President of the United States on all civil service and personnel laws and as one of the President’s chief representatives in dealing with federal personnel system bills pending before the U.S. Congress. In 1980 he was again appointed United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and served until appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by the President in 1987.

Judge Burnett, Sr. received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a minor in Economics summa cum laude from Howard University and his Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 1958. Highlights of his college and law school years include being elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a Howard University junior, graduating from New York University School of Law in the top 10% of his class and as a Founders’ Day Award Recipient, and holding the title of Associate Research Editor of its Law Review. He was a member of the American Bar Association Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children and the District of Columbia Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics. He was a former Chair of the National Bar Association Juvenile Justice Task Force and former Chair of its Juvenile Justice Committee.

Ben Cort’s passion for recovery, prevention and harm reduction comes from his own struggle with substance abuse. Sober since June 15, 1996, Ben has been a part of the recovery community in almost every way imaginable. From recipient to provider to spokesperson, Ben has a deep understanding of the issues and a personal motivation to see the harmful effects of drug and alcohol abuse minimized.

Today, he spends his time as an author and a consultant. However, Ben built much of his career outside of the field of substance abuse recovery. Until 2007, he was the director of human resources at an S&P 500 firm. But his departure from that role did, indeed, compel him to do more to help people enduring the substance struggles he knows so well. Ben started out by working to support a Colorado-based nonprofit that helps people regain sobriety, Phoenix Multisport (PM). As an original board member and then the nonprofit’s first full-time employee, he was instrumental in building Phoenix Multisport into a nationally recognized organization lauded for its innovative approach to building sober communities around sport and healthy activities. He worked extensively with the treatment community and with drug courts and the therapy community as advisor, a member of clinical teams, frequent speaker and liaison.

As someone who understands the experience of addiction treatment as much as the leadership of the programs delivering that treatment, Ben brings a holistic, compassionate and informed perspective to SAM’s efforts.

Dr. A. Eden Evins is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Addiction Medicine and the Addiction Research Program of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia and her medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She completed an internship in pediatric medicine at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and her residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Harvard-Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program in Boston, where she was also chief resident. Dr. Evins conducted a fellowship in molecular biology at the Mailman Research Center of McLean Hospital and a second fellowship in clinical and translational research at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She received a master’s degree in public health in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Evins’ research interests include development of novel pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for nicotine dependence and for prevention of relapse to nicotine and other addictive disorders in people with and without major mental illness. Her interests also include development of personalized treatment algorithms, pharmacotherapy for negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. She has authored book chapters, reviews and articles that have been published in prestigious scientific journals, such as the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Dr. Evins has received two career awards from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institute of Health (NIH), has twice received a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award, received the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit Young Investigator Award, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Tobacco Control Program Young Investigator Award. She is currently funded by a NIDA career development award to mentor young scientists in patient-oriented addiction research and to continue her work in development of personalized treatments for addictive disorders, and by two NIDA R01 grants, two R21 grants and one U01 grant for the study of novel pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for addictive disorders.

Dr. Sion Kim Harris is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR), an international research center that strives to be a leading source of innovative, effective strategies to prevent, identify, and treat substance-related problems in children, adolescents, and young adults. Since its inception in 1999, CeASAR has pioneered work in adolescent substance use screening and brief intervention strategies, including the development of the CRAFFT screen which has become the internationally recommended standard for adolescent substance use screening. CeASAR has conducted research in partnership with investigators worldwide including the Czech Republic, Spain, Zambia, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia. CeASAR studies also include evaluation of the effects of adolescent substance use on brain development. Dr. Harris has published nearly 70 original scientific publications, and has received numerous awards, including the Young Professional Award from the Maternal and Child Health Section of the American Public Health Association, and Best Research Award from the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse. She is an advisory member of the National Adolescent and Young Adult Health Resource Center and the MCHB Adolescent and Young Adult Health Research Network.

Dr. Marilyn Huestis is adjunct professor of University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and recently retired from her position as NIDA’s Chief of Chemistry and Drug Metabolism last year after a 23-year career with the Institute. Professor Huestis is a world-renowned expert on human drug testing, publishing 453 manuscripts and book chapters on the topic and serves on five editorial boards. Her research focuses on effects of occasional and frequent cannabinoid use on pregnancy and child outcomes, brain function and driving impairment, and on novel psychoactive substances, synthetic cannabinoids.

She received her Ph.D. in toxicology from University of Maryland, Baltimore, and was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in medicine and surgery from University of Helsinki in Finland. Professor Huestis is past president of the Society of Forensic Toxicology, the Toxicology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, and has received numerous national and international awards recognizing her research and contributions to public health and safety.

Dr. Yifrah Kaminer is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry & Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he was affiliated with the Alcohol Research Center and the Injury Prevention Center. His clinical and research work centers on the assessment, treatment, and continuity of care of high-risk behaviors in youth, particularly substance use disorders, comorbid depression, and suicidal behavior, with recent research focusing on youth opioid overdose and the integration of overdose and suicide-risk assessment. He received his M.D. from the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel and his M.B.A. from the University of Hartford. Dr. Kaminer published 6 books, 150 scientific articles, 50 book chapters, and rating scales, including the Teen Addiction Severity Index, and served as a guest editor of special issues on adolescent substance use for journals including the American Journal on Addictions, Substance Abuse, and Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. He has received research funding from NIAAA, NIDA, CSAT, and other foundations.

A Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Kansas.

Her research is focused on treating tobacco dependence and training health professionals to incorporate tobacco treatment into their clinical practice. She is clinical director of the University of Kansas Hospital’s highly successful tobacco-treatment program, UKanQuit at KUMed. Her research projects, many of which have received funding from the National Institutes of Health, include treating rural smokers and understanding the overlap in tobacco and other drug dependence.

An associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado at Denver. For the last decade, she also has served as director of psychiatric services for adolescents at the university-affiliated Addiction, Research and Treatment Services (ARTS).

Dr. Riggs’ research career has focused on the development and testing of effective pharmacotherapy and behavioral treatment interventions in adolescents with substance use disorders and psychiatric comorbidity. More recently, her research has expanded to multi-site effectiveness trials of combined pharmacotherapy and behavioral interventions conducted in community-based treatment settings.

Dr. Riggs has been the principal investigator on several research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Institue on Drug Abuse. They include a recently completed randomized, controlled trial of fluoxetine versus placebo and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in depressed, substance-dependent adolescents. She is currently the principal investigator of a multi-site trial in NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network (CTN): A Randomized Controlled Trial of OROS-MPH for ADHD in Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders.

Dr. Christian Thurstone is one of fewer than three dozen physicians in the United States who are board certified in general, child and adolescent and addictions psychiatry.

He is medical director of one of Colorado’s largest youth substance-abuse-treatment clinics and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver, where he conducts research on youth substance use and addiction and serves as director of medical training for the university’s addiction-medicine fellowship program. Dr. Thurstone has completed medical training at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and UCD. In 2010, he completed five years of mentored research training through the National Institute on Drug Abuse/American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry K12 Research Program in Substance Abuse. He is also a past president of the Colorado Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Society. He is honored to treat American service members who need mental healthcare as an Army Reserves officer in the Combat Stress Unit of the 807th Medical Command.

Dr. Thurstone is a fluent Spanish speaker and enjoys working with many of his young patients and their families in his second language.

A board-certified Child Abuse Pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado at Denver. She instructs in the area of maternal substance abuse and child maltreatment.

Currently, Dr. Wells serves as medical director of the Denver Health Clinic at the Family Crisis Center and as an attending physician at Denver Health and at the Kempe Child Protection Team at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She also is president of the Colorado chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a leader of the Colorado Court Improvement Project and a member of the board of directors of the Colorado State Foster Parent Association.

Dr. Wells assisted in the formation of the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, where she serves as an advisor to the executive committee. She was also involved in the development of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, where she participates in the Medical/Research Working Group.

Dr. Wells has conducted research on drug issues as they relate to children. Supported by a grant from ACYF’s Children’s Bureau, she developed a model program to better identify and serve substance-exposed newborns and their families. Another grant from HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Healthy Tomorrows Program allowed Dr. Wells to develop a medical home for children in foster care. The result of that effort is the Connections for Kids Clinic at Denver Health, which now provides medical evaluations for 90 percent of the children placed in foster care in the City and County of Denver.

Dr. Wells has received several professional awards. In 2011, she received the James E. Strain Community Service Award from the Colorado chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics for of her outstanding contribution to children’s interests. In 2009, she received the Colorado CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Advocate of the Year Award. In 2007, she received both the inaugural National Collaborative Leadership Award from the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare and the Commissioner’s Award from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) branch of HHS.

In her spare time, Dr. Wells enjoys anything related to the outdoors including cycling, hiking, and camping.

Dr. Aaron Weiner is a board-certified Psychologist and the President of Prime For Life. A past president of the Society of Addiction Psychology, Dr. Weiner is a clinician, author, consultant, national speaker, and podcast host focused on addiction prevention, treatment, and public health policy. He earned his doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is board-certified in Counseling Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), and is a Master Addiction Counselor (MAC) through the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors. He serves as an Affiliated Faculty Member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and as a Science Advisory Board Member for the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions and Smart Approaches to Marijuana, and he holds professional affiliations with the American Psychological Association (Division 17, Society of Counseling Psychology, and Division 50, Society of Addiction Psychology) and the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Weiner is a strong advocate for evidence-based care in treating chemical dependency and behavioral addictions and a proponent of integrating behavioral health services into medical settings, and he has been an outspoken advocate on issues including naloxone co-prescribing, fentanyl test strips, responsible opioid destruction, marijuana education, person-first language for stigma reduction, and youth vaping awareness. He has spoken nationally on opioid addiction, marijuana commercialization, and the vaping epidemic, and has served as a context expert for policymakers and media outlets. His honors include the DuPage County Prevention Leadership Team Changemaker Award (2019) and the Naperville Jaycees Distinguished Service Award for Healthcare Professional (2019).

Stuart Gitlow, MD, MPH, MBA, is a board-certified general, addiction, and forensic psychiatrist and Past President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), for which he serves as delegate to the American Medical Association. He is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at West Virginia University and the founder of the Annenberg Physician Training Program in Addictive Disease. Dr. Gitlow earned his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, completed his psychiatric and public health training at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed a forensic psychiatry fellowship at Harvard Medical School; he also holds an MBA from the University of Rhode Island. He has chaired the AMA Council on Science and Public Health and has decades of experience in the clinical practice of addiction psychiatry. Dr. Gitlow formerly produced both Health Channel and ABC network programming at America Online.

Dr. Gary Kirkilas is a board-certified general pediatrician with a unique practice. His office is a 40-foot mobile medical unit that travels to various homeless shelters in Phoenix, providing free medical care to families and teens. Dr. Kirkilas also serves as a spokesperson for several pediatric organizations, giving commentary on trending pediatric issues in the media. As a spokesperson, he is often called to speak on the effects of cannabis advertising on children and he has worked alongside legislators in several states in their efforts to restrict cannabis advertising that targets children. He has four wonderful (most of the time) children and four affectionate (rarely) cats.