.jpg "David Awadalla, MSW, BSHP photo")
Public Health Advisor
SAMHSA's Office of Recovery
Naperville, Illinois
David Awadalla, MSW, BSHP, currently serves as a Public Health Advisor with SAMHSA’s Office of Recovery (OR). David leads or supports numerous projects within the Office of Recovery, including the development of SAMHSA’s National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification, called for in President Biden’s 2022 Unity Agenda. David also oversees several other recovery-related initiatives, including the Peer Recovery Center of Excellence, criminal justice and re-entry initiatives, and regularly presents on SAMHSA and the Office of Recovery’s work portfolio. David also supports SAMHSA’s Office of Prevention Innovation, including an innovation project that is examining reporting barriers associated with naloxone administration outcomes across Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) grant programs. David also co-leads efforts within the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Center (NHRTAC), in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Overdose Prevention.
David also identifies as a person in long-term recovery. After struggling with challenges relating to substance use for the better part of a decade—and culminating in a 2-year prison sentence for non-violent drug offenses in 2011-- David entered long-term recovery in 2015. Upon entering recovery, David went on to finish his bachelor’s degree in public health at the University of Georgia and graduated with his Master of Social Work at the University of Michigan in 2018. David is always seeking to advocate for and incorporate the voices of people with lived and living experience into in his professional work, and utilizes his own experiences to enhance programs, projects, and policies across SAMHSA and its federal, state, and local partners.
Monday, May 1, 2023
4:15 PM – 5:15 PM
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