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|
ARS Board
| Member |
Background |
| |
|
| Tina Barker |
Tina Barker has been the Director of Oklahoma Outreach Sober School since it's inception in 2006. Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Sober School recently celebrated the accolades of their 18th high school graduate. Tina received her Bachlelor's in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, and anticipates receiving her Master's Degree from South Western Oklahoma State University in Educational Administration in August 2010. She has attended four Association of Recovery Schools conferences, including serving on the 2008 conference planning committeee, and currently is a member-at-large on the ARS board. |
|
| Traci Bowermaster |
Traci Bowermaster is the Lead Teacher of the Insight Program and Special Education Teacher at White Bear Lake Area Learning Center in suburban St. Paul, MN. She received her BS in Special Education from Saint Cloud State University in 1991 and her Master’s Degree in Education with licensures in Emotional Behavioral Disorders and Specific Learning Disorders from Bethel College in 1998. Her Master’s Thesis, “Chemically Dependent Teens with Special Needs: Educational Considerations for After Treatment” (updated in 2003 by Ms. Bowermaster and Dr. Andrew Finch), was the springboard from which she and Beth Samuelson and others started the Insight Program in 2001. The Insight Program is a recovery high school that provides wrap-around services for recovering students, including those with dual disorders and special education needs. It is one of the first such programs of its kind in the nation. A member of the Association of Recovery Schools since its inception in 2002, Ms. Bowermaster has served as the organization’s secretary and currently serves as the vice chair of the ARS board. |
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| Andrew Finch |
Dr. Andrew Finch is Assistant Clinical Professor and School Counseling Coordinator for the Human Development Counseling Program in the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University. He is also a co-founder of the Association of Recovery Schools. His publications include, Starting a Recovery School and Approaches to Substance Abuse, and Addiction in Educational Communities: A Guide to Practices that Support Recovery in Adolescents and Young Adults, on which he was a co-editor. For nine years, Dr. Finch worked for Community High School in Nashville, a school for teens recovering from alcohol and other drug addictions that he helped form. Dr. Finch is an NCC and a licensed professional school counselor in Tennessee. |
| Beth Fitzsimons |
|
| Barabara Frey |
Dr. Barbara Bruhns Frey is an independent consultant working on issues related to improving mental health and substance use disorder services. As a research psychologist, her work focuses on issues related to program evaluation, needs assessment, data infrastructure development, strategic planning, coordination of publicly funded services and identifying gaps in public services. Prior to working as an independent consultant, she worked as a statistical research specialist in the Tennessee Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination. She was charged with the oversight of Tennessee’s Adolescent Substance Abuse Coordination (SAC) grant awarded through the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It was during her work in Tennessee that she was introduced to the Association of Recovery Schools. |
| Rachelle Gardner |
Rachelle Gardner MA, CADAC IV, CCS is the Chief Operating Oficer for Hope Academy a member school in Indianapolis, Indiana which began in August of 2005. She is also the Director of Adolescent Services at Fairbanks, a treament center associated with Hope Academy. She has her Masters in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. She holds the highest Addiction Certification in Indiana and is a Certified Clinical Supervisor. She has been in the field of addiction for over 20 years. She has been a part of ARS since 2004. |
| Charlie Hugo |
|
| Lisa Laitman |
Lisa Laitman MSEd, LCADC is the Director of the Alcohol and Other
Drug Assistance Program for Students (ADAPS) at Rutgers University.
In1983, Ms. Laitman implemented an alcohol/drug counseling program
at the university to assess and treat high risk students and has
developed an on-campus recovery support community that includes
the Recovery House which has been in existence since 1988. She is
involved in a NIDA Center grant with the Rutgers Center of Alcohol
Studies, helps develop and implement alcohol policies at the university
and is on the Executive Committee of the Rutgers Health Services.
Lisa is the Membership Coordinator with the Association of Recovery
Schools. She has a thirty-year career in the substance abuse field
in administrative and clinical roles. |
| Michelle Lipinski |
Presently the Director of the Northshore Recovery High School, Michelle began her career as a licensed Biology and Chemistry teacher. Her experience in the public school system has allowed her to work with diverse groups of students from all walks of life with various learning styles and assorted therapeutic needs. Over a span of eight years, she developed a close relationahip with those students most "at-risk" of academic and social failure. For the following eight years, as the director of an alternative education setting, she focused on developing rigorous academic programs which address the "whole-child" needs of this population of students. Prior to coming to the Northshore Recovery High School, Michelle was an educator in Boston, Watertown and Salem, Massachusetts. She was also the Director of the Salem High School Alternative Program where, in addition to addressing the academic, social and emotional needs of her students, she empowered them to start their own business. Michelle continues to work with professinals and youth in juvenile justice, department of youth services, professional and youth in juvenile justice, department of youth services, department of social service and incarcerated youth in Massachusetts to provide a safe and supported academic experience. Recognized for her academic and experiential knowledge of at-risk youth, Michelle has and continues to present and speak at state wide and local conferences and workshops for the Massachusetts Department of Education, Youth At Risk, North Shore Workforce Investment Board, North Shore Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, local high schools, and substance abuse coalitions. She is currently the Communications Chairperson for the Association of Recovery Schools national organization. |
| Roger Oser |
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| Jim Williams |
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