.jpg "Robert Childs, MPH photo")
Technical Expert Lead
JBS International
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Robert Childs, MPH is currently a Technical Expert Lead at JBS International, focusing on providing technical assistance on rural opioid and psychostimulant overdose prevention and response projects. Prior to working at JBS, he worked as North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition’s (NCHRC) Executive Director from 2009-2018 and oversaw the agency's operations, program implementation and innovation. Robert Childs specializes in harm reduction practice & advocacy, overdose prevention and response initiatives, pre-arrest diversion and law enforcement occupational safety & drug overdose response. At NCHRC, Robert helped develop the largest syringe service program network, as well as community and law enforcement based naloxone distribution programs in the US South. He has been invited to speak at the United Nations, the US Congress, US Attorney General's State Offices, ONDCP, the FDA and multiple state legislatures on his work. Robert worked with NCHRC in leading the campaigns that led to the passage of comprehensive overdose prevention legislation (911 Good Samaritan & naloxone) in 2013, 2015 and 2017 and passage of syringe decriminalization, biohazard collection and syringe service program legislation in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Childs and his team also secured funding for naloxone purchasing (2015, 2017, 2018) and for pre-arrest diversion programs (2016). Robert helped start the South's first Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program in Fayetteville (2016) and helped in setting up multiple other programs around the state. Childs’ work has been featured in the New York Times, the Lancet, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Kaiser Health News, Human Rights Watch, MMWR & NPR.
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
4:30 PM – 5:45 PM ET