Awards Nominations & Recipients

Leaders of the addiction recovery advocacy movement from across the nation will be honored at the Recovery Leadership Summit (RLS), June 2-5, 2024. RLS salutes the legacies of dynamic recovery trailblazers who dedicated their lives to removing barriers for individuals and families affected by addiction and honors the future of their legacies.

Our Awards

Appointed Award:

Excellence in Equity and Justice Award, in honor of Dr. Calvin Trent Jr., recognizes transformational leadership in creating authentic, diverse, equitable, just, and inclusive recovery communities. Dr. Calvin Trent of Detroit, Michigan, was a nationally recognized expert widely lauded for his fierce advocacy for the recovery community and a strong proponent of Recovery Oriented System of Care (ROSC) transformation. Dr. Trent's work helped to modernize how black and indigenous people of color are viewed and treated by health care providers.

Accepting Nominations:

Recovery Organization of the Year Award recognizes the exemplary achievements of one local, state, regional, or national nonprofit grassroots recovery organization for its advocacy and mobilizing of the recovery community to increase the prevalence and quality of long-term recovery from substance use disorder.

2024 Awardees

Dr. Corrie Vilsaint

Excellence in Equity and Justice Award

Dr. Corrie Vilsaint

Dr. Corrie Vilsaint is a recovery scientist who serves as instructor at Harvard Medical School, Associate Director of Recovery Health Equity at the Recovery Research…

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Recovery Organization of the Year

Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness

Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness believes everyone deserves the chance to see tomorrow. We are a state recognized non-profit Recovery Community Organization (RCO), led…

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Past Awardees

Dr. Dietra Hawkins

I am a licensed Clinical Psychologist who holds a faculty appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine, Program for Recovery…

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Dr. H. Westley Clark

H. Westley Clark retired in August 2022 as the dean’s executive professor in the Department of Public Health at Santa Clara University in California. He…

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Dr. Vincent “Peter” Hayden

Dr. Vincent “Peter” Hayden

Peter Hayden is the principal and president of Turning Point, Inc., a Minneapolis-based nonprofit agency devoted to integrated holistic health services programs. Under his leadership,…

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Emily Newton

Emily Newton is a young woman in long-term recovery from substance use and mental health challenges. As a student, she returned on campus to the…

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Gretchen Bergman

Gretchen Burns Bergman is Executive Director and Co-Founder of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing), a non-profit organization that works to reduce…

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Ivette Torres

Ivette Torres is currently a free-lance consultant, most recently engaged by the National Latino Behavioral Health Association. She retired from the Center for Substance Abuse…

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Jessica Geschke

Jessica currently leads various projects that aim to bring awareness to substance use disorder and end the stigma surrounding it within her employment at Serve…

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John Donovan

Maj. John G. Donovan, M.Ed., C.P.R.S., U.S. Army, Ret. Maj. John G. Donovan is a person in long-term recovery with over 44 years of recovery…

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