NYAPRS is very pleased to announce that Tom Coderre has been tapped by the Biden Administration to serve as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Tom is the first person in recovery to lead SAMHSA. His “career has been significantly influenced by his personal journey and a philosophy that acknowledges the essential role peer recovery support services play in helping people with mental and substance use disorders to rebuild their lives.”
Tom has previously served as SAMHSA’s Chief of Staff and the Senior Advisor to the Administrator. Some may recognize him from a recent documentary about the recovery movement, The Anonymous People. He will be acting until a permanent Assistant Secretary is appointed and confirmed. See the Biden Administration’s announcement at https://www.samhsa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/leadership/biographies/acting-assistant-secretary-tom-coderre.
Tom Hill has been appointed as Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Tom has previously served as Vice President of Practice Improvement for the National Council for Behavioral Health and as Senior Advisor on Addiction and Recovery to the SAMHSA Administrator. As part of this post, he initially served as Acting Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. He is a highly acclaimed and inspiring national thought leader in the addiction and recovery field; his personal experience of recovery from addiction spans two decades.
Both are longtime friends and partners to our NYAPRS community.
Great thanks to the Biden Administration for these exciting and inspired appointments and great congratulations to Tom and Tom!