Three addiction medicine doctors in three different states share advocacy wins from 2025. Learn about the policies shaping addiction medicine across the country, and what helped push these legislative wins over the finish line. 

Plus, discover highlights from ASAM’s new report on major state-level addiction medicine trends this year. 

Featured in this episode: 

Links: 

Author and journalist Maia Szalavitz - winner of this year's 2025 ASAM Media Award - sat down to talk about her career covering addiction and public policy, as well as her most recent book Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction

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🏅ASAM Awards & Recognition

👉 Maia Szalavitz Official Website

📕 Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction

ASAM President Elect Tim Wiegand, MD, FACMT, FAACT, DFASAM, sat down with us at this year's 56th ASAM Annual Conference to discuss his road to addiction medicine and why he wanted to get involved in a leadership position with ASAM.

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🏅ASAM Awards & Recognition

Grab your tissues for this moving and powerful episode! Flora Sadri-Azarbayejani, DO, MPH, FAAFP, FASAM, joins host, Zach, to talk about her path to and passion for practicing addiction medicine. During the conversation, she shares stories and experiences that have been impactful on her journey and shaped both how she practices medicine – emphasizing the critical component of compassion – and her perspectives on addiction.

Dr. Flora Sadri-Azarbayejani attended Boston University, where she earned an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a dual master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics, and medical science. She attained a doctorate in medicine from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Sadri-Azarbayejani worked as an epidemiologist in infectious disease at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; completed residency and became a family physician and eventually chief medical officer at The Community Health Center of Franklin County (Massachusetts); and, after becoming board certified in addiction medicine, has worked in the addiction medicine space since 2014 in both inpatient and outpatient settings and has opened programs in both arenas.  

Dr. Sadri-Azarbayejani serves as the medical director for substance use services at Lowell Community Health Center and medical director for an inpatient addiction treatment center. She is active in various medical societies, including the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). She has been involved with the development of CARF guidelines for outpatient addiction treatment programs and hopes to make an impact on passing legislation of supervised consumption sites in the near future.

LINKS:

Massachusetts Medical Society

American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)

CARF International

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

Alta DeRoo, MD, MBA, FACOG, DFASAM, joins host, Zach, to talk about her experience in the US Navy (USN) and her path to practicing OBGYN and addiction medicine. She discusses the intersection of general medicine or primary specialty practice and addiction and shares her perspectives on stigma related to addiction. Dr. DeRoo explains the potential challenges of transitioning from active duty to veteran status and how these can sometimes lead to substance use, addiction, or mental health issues. Finally, she shares what inspired (and continues to inspire) her sense of service and offers advice to the next generation of addiction medicine specialists.

Dr. DeRoo’s father was active-duty Navy when she was born on Midway Island in the South Pacific. A sense of service was branded in her character, and after earning a BA in psychology from Connecticut College, she joined the Navy and served for 24 years. She was selected for combat Naval Aviation and was among the first cohort of women to fly in combat. Dr. DeRoo was the first female in her community of the E2C Hawkeye, a carrier airborne early warning plane. (They have a short cameo in Top Gun, but you would not see Mav flying her plane.)

After 8 years of aviation and over 40 combat missions, Dr. DeRoo was awarded a scholarship to attend medical school. After graduating from the University of Florida College of Medicine, she completed residency in OBGYN. She completed several missions, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and 5 deployments on the USNS Mercy performing surgeries in Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and she was the mission commander of a Papua, New Guinea mission.

Dr. DeRoo became very aware of the alcohol and drugs that sailors and soldiers used on deployment (for various reasons). Her father was also one of these sailors who eventually developed alcohol use disorder. From his stories and the stories of her shipmates and battle buddies, she became very interested in the science of addiction. Her Commanding Officer at the time allowed her to moonlight at a nearby methadone clinic, which was the beginning of her career in addiction medicine.

Dr. DeRoo later became board certified in addiction medicine and practiced both OBGYN and addiction medicine. She retired from the USN to Culpeper, VA, where she started the county’s first ever OBOT with their Community Services Board, started treating pregnant women with SUD, and incorporated this into a clinic in her town. Through aggressive naloxone distribution and OUD treatment, they were able to decrease their opioid overdose rate between 2016-2018.

It was during this time Dr. DeRoo also became interested in the Virginia Chapter of ASAM. She served as secretary for two years, then president elect in 2020. The only thing that drew her away from serving as president in 2020 was a job opportunity that, to her, was a calling. She was asked to be the medical director of the Betty Ford Center and all California sites. She made dramatic changes there and was promoted to chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and their 16 sites across the US. During this time, she also earned an MBA from the University of Virginia and became a Distinguished Fellow of ASAM.

Virginia Society of Addiction Medicine (VASAM)

American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Distinguished Fellows of ASAM (DFASAM)

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.

Lipi Roy, MD, MPH, FASAM, shares what piqued her interest in the field of addiction medicine and how she expanded her work into media outreach and appearances. Dr. Roy talks about creating her YouTube channel, Health, Humor, and Harmony, how she started her company, SITA MED, and what it takes to prepare for a media appearance. She describes her experience as chief of addiction medicine at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York and discusses why she feels so compelled to speak about the issues of stigma and loneliness and how they intersect. Finally, Dr. Roy offers advice for the next generation of addiction medicine providers.

Dr. Roy is a physician, international speaker, media personality, entrepreneur, and host of the YouTube series, Health, Humor and Harmony. In July 2023, she founded SITA MED, a health speaking company addressing stress-related conditions such as addiction and anxiety, and has trained doctors, judges, journalists, executives, and beyond. Dr. Roy served on the frontlines of the pandemic as the medical director of COVID Isolation and Quarantine Sites for Housing Works in New York City. She also treated patients with opioid use disorder at a harm reduction clinic in the Bronx while working at multiple COVID vaccination sites.

As an MSNBC and NBC medical contributor, Dr. Roy made over 350 live television appearances discussing COVID-19. Dr. Roy’s work spans academia, clinical medicine, homeless health, social and criminal justice, public speaking, media and entertainment. As the former chief of addiction medicine for Rikers Island, Dr. Roy oversaw substance use treatment and recovery services at the nation’s 2nd-largest jail complex. Dr. Roy also sees patients at Greenwich House Center for Healing and serves as clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health.

Previously, Dr. Roy served as a primary care doctor to Boston's homeless population among whom the leading cause of death was drug overdose. She also served as an attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and as faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Roy completed her medical and master’s in public health degrees at Tulane University, followed by residency training in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Roy’s mission is to educate and empower the public to make healthy decisions. As a Forbes contributor who has interviewed medical experts such as Dr. Peter Hotez and celebrities such as Mary J. Blige and Ice-T, Dr. Roy is one of the world’s trusted experts in health communication. She has appeared on multiple media outlets including CNN, The Tamron Hall Show, CBS New York and PIX11, and has been featured in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Cooking Light, Oprah.com, and many others.

Health, Humor, and Harmony

SITA MED

Articles as Forbes contributor

On social media at Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.

Petros Levounis, MD, MA, DFASAM, talks with our host, Zach, about why he chose to practice addiction medicine, including an impactful experience at the Betty Ford Center (now Hazelden Betty Ford) as a medical student. He shares his thoughts regarding stigma and his extensive writing about addiction. Dr. Levounis speaks about how his fields of study and interest (including sociology, medicine, mental health, and addiction) intersect and the ways treatment can be both unique to the individual and similar. He shares what motivates him to treat addiction every day and where he sees the field moving in the future. Dr. Levounis offers advice for those who may have a loved one with addiction and to the next generation of addiction providers.

Dr. Levounis serves as professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and associate dean at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He is also the chief of service at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, director of the Northern New Jersey Medication Assisted Treatment Center of Excellence, and immediate past president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Dr. Levounis came to Rutgers from Columbia University where he served as director of the Addiction Institute of New York from 2002 to 2013.

Dr. Levounis is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University where he studied chemistry and biophysics before receiving his medical education at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. During medical school, he researched the effects of social class on patient-physician relationships in Oxford, England, and received an MA degree in sociology from Stanford. In 1994, he moved to New York City to train in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University. He graduated from Columbia earning the National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award and went on to complete his fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University.

Dr. Levounis has written numerous articles, monographs, and book chapters; has lectured extensively on addiction topics throughout the United States and abroad; and has been interviewed by CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, The Martha Stewart Radio Show, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others.

Dr. Levounis has served on the boards of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and from 2005 to 2009 chaired the national Committee on Addiction Treatment of the APA. Dr. Levounis is a Betty Ford Scholar, a recipient of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists’ Distinguished Service Award and the ASAM Educator of the Year Award, and a distinguished fellow of the APA and ASAM. In 2017, he was elected as an honorary member of the World Psychiatric Association. He is the 2024 recipient of The John P. McGovern Award on Addiction and Society, from ASAM.

Dr. Levounis has published fourteen books including the self-help paperback Sober Siblings: How to Help Your Alcoholic Brother or Sister—and Not Lose Yourself; the textbook of Substance Dependence and Co-Occurring Psychiatric Disorders; Motivational Interviewing for Clinical Practice; The Behavioral Addictions; Becoming Mindful; LGBTQ Mental Health: The Spectrum of Gender and Sexuality; Office-Based Buprenorphine Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder, now in its second edition; and Technological Addictions. Dr. Levounis is currently working on the first textbook of Nature Therapy, which is going to be available in the fall of 2024. His books have been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Dr. Levounis is married to actor Lukas Hassel and lives in New York City.

Links:

American Psychiatric Association (APA)

American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.

Marianne Fingerhood, DNP, ANP-BC, joins us to share her journey into the field of addiction medicine and discuss the importance of providing medication treatment for addiction within a primary care setting. She talks about the essential role nurse practitioners (NPs) play in treating addiction, how crucial it is for NPs to have proper support, and the benefits of a professional community. Marianne touches on the dynamics of having a husband, Dr. Michael Fingerhood, who also treats addiction. She describes the unique ways nurses can combat stigma related to addiction and shares about the Words Matter Pledge initiative within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Marianne also emphasizes the significance of resilience as a provider and offers words of wisdom to future NPs and addiction medicine practitioners.

Dr. Marianne Fingerhood has been a nurse since 1985, a nursing educator since 1990, and a nurse practitioner in primary care since 1999. In all settings, she has brought a passion for sharing knowledge, whether with patients, students, or colleagues. In her clinician role, she is the champion for expanding access to treatment for substance use disorders (SUD) in the primary care setting. As the Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program director at Johns Hopkins University, she created a curriculum related to compassionate treatment of chronic pain, safe opioid prescribing, and recognition and treatment of SUD. She directs the Supporting Nursing Advanced Practice Transitions (SNAPT) Fellowship for nurse practitioners entering practice post-graduation. Her fellows work in community-based practices and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) where they care for patients with opioid use disorder.

Links

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

DNP: Adult-Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program

Supporting Nursing Advanced Practice Transitions (SNAPT) Fellowship

Johns Hopkins Medicine - The Words Matter Pledge

Dr. Michael Fingerhood podcast episode

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.

In this episode, Geri-Lynn Utter, PsyD, shares her personal journey from growing up as a child of parents who struggled with addiction to becoming a clinical psychologist and author. She discusses her documentary, Utter Nonsense, her books, Mainlining Philly and Aftershock, and her podcast, Mind Over Mayhem. Dr. Utter offers insights on addiction, harm reduction, and her experiences in Philadelphia; addresses stigma around addiction; and offers advice for the next generation of mental health professionals and those who may have a loved one with addiction.

Dr. Utter is a licensed psychologist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is PSYPACT certified, allowing her to conduct telepsychology across state boundaries. Dr. Utter specializes in working with individuals who struggle with co-occurring mental health concerns like substance use disorders in conjunction with severe depression and anxiety. She also works in medical affairs as a clinical scientist in the substance use disorder space.

In 2020, Dr. Utter released her first book, Mainlining Philly: Survival, Hope, and Resisting Drug Addiction, which resulted from her desire to share her story and instill hope in others. The book is based on her life experiences and challenges as a result of her parents’ struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, and other mental health concerns like major depressive disorder, severe anxiety, and trauma.

Her documentary, cleverly titled Utter Nonsense, was released on Apple TV and Prime Video in August of 2023. It is an informative, touching, and personal look into the world of drug addiction. It focuses on individuals in the Kensington section of Philadelphia and follows her story and that of a few others to educate viewers about how addiction impacts everyone in its orbit.

Released in September of 2023, her second book, Aftershock: How Past Events Shake Up Your Life Today, focuses on the aftershock phenomenon, a repertoire of delayed mental health symptoms like irritability, emotional fatigue, and depression, all rooted in seemingly everyday events like parenting, changing careers, divorce, the death of a loved one, etc., that produce real but often unrecognized stress and trauma.

Dr. Utter currently lives in a Philadelphia suburb with her husband and two children. When she is not practicing psychology or writing, she can be found on the soccer field or basketball court cheering for her kiddos.

Links:

Dr. Geri-Lynn Utter, PsyD

Utter Nonsense

Mainlining Philly: Survival, Hope, and Resisting Drug Addiction

Aftershock: How Past Events Shake Up Your Life Today

Mind Over Mayhem

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.

In this episode, Jason Kirby, DO, MBA, FASAM, shares what led him to the field of addiction medicine and describes a particular turning point in his career path. Dr. Kirby discusses the importance of individualized treatment, the similarities between fitness and recovery communities, and how his interest in human behavior influenced his career journey. He stresses the critical importance of self-care among physicians and other care providers, the benefits of physician health programs, and addressing the four facets of well-being. Dr. Kirby shares his thoughts about the stigma associated with addiction and the critical role education plays in reducing stigma and promoting recovery. He discusses his efforts as president of the Tennessee Society of Addiction Medicine (TnSAM) to address stigma and other issues and shares his primary goals in this leadership role. Dr. Kirby highlights some impactful moments during his career and offers advice for the next generation of addiction medicine providers.

Dr. Jason Kirby serves as the chief medical officer for Landmark Recovery and Praxis by Landmark Recovery and is currently the president of TnSAM. He is an expert in population health policy, healthcare economics, and human behavior and is dual board-certified in addiction medicine and family medicine. He received his medical degree from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and his MBA from Point Park University. Dr. Kirby also is a fellow and leader of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), having served or currently serving on its Finance, ASAM Criteria Strategy Steering, Annual Conference Program Planning, and Levels of Care Certification Oversight Committees. Recently, he co-authored the withdrawal management chapter for The ASAM Criteria, 4th Edition. He previously served as medical director of addiction and recovery services at St. Peter’s Health Partners in Albany, NY, and practiced at St. Peter’s Hospital as their chief of behavioral health. Prior to that, Dr. Kirby served as medical director for Gateway Rehabilitation Center and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Medical Management and Policy Division. Originally from West Virginia, Dr. Kirby is also an avid woodworker, competitive CrossFitter, husband, and father to three amazing little boys.

Links:

Tennessee Society of Addiction Medicine (TnSAM)

American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)

The ASAM Criteria, 4th Edition

Find your State Physician Health program

CrossFit

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not along. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM’s Patient Resources page for more information.

The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.