IBH Legacy Project

The Institute for Behavior and Health is pleased to bring you a series of conversations with professionals in the fields of addiction medicine and drug policy hosted by IBH President Robert L. DuPont, MD.

A note from Dr. DuPont: A great joy of my life is to spend time talking and thinking with my many colleagues from my career in addiction medicine over my 55+ years in the field. Through this initiative, I hope to capture the wisdom of my colleagues in my professional journey and to make it available to the many young people now attracted to this field.

Cara Poland, MD

Cara Poland, MD, M.Ed, FACP, DFASAM was trained in internal medicine at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan and in addiction medicine at Boston Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She has an interest in educating physicians and physicians-in-training to improve care for patients with substance use disorders and alcohol use disorders. Her clinical focus is working with pregnant and parenting women and their families. Dr. Poland’s website.

Gregory Skipper, MD

Dr. Skipper is a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and a certified medical review officer. He previously served as medical director for the Alabama Physician Health Program and was on the council that created and oversaw the Oregon Health Professionals Program. Dr. Skipper was the primary innovator of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) testing and is an expert in alcohol biomarkers and drug testing. He was a principal investigator of the National Physician Health Program Blueprint Study, funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, and is the author of many articles regarding drug testing, physician health, and contingency monitoring. Dr. Skipper was formerly medical director of Springbrook Hazelden, and he was a chief advisor to the development of the professional’s program at Promises, Betty Ford Center and Bradford Health Services. Dr. Skipper’s website.

William L. White, MA

William L. “Bill” White is an Emeritus Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems / Lighthouse Institute and past-chair of the board of Recovery Communities United. Bill has a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies and has worked full time in the addictions field since 1969 as a streetworker, counselor, clinical director, researcher and well-traveled trainer and consultant. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 articles, monographs, research reports and book chapters and 20 books. His book, Slaying the Dragon – The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, received the McGovern Family Foundation Award for the best book on addiction recovery. Bill was featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS special “Close To Home: Addiction in America” and Showtime’s documentary “Smoking, Drinking and Drugging in the 20th Century.” Bill’s sustained contributions to the field have been acknowledged by awards from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NAADAC: The Association of Addiction Professionals, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the Native American Wellbriety Movement. Bill’s widely read papers on recovery advocacy have been published by the Johnson Institute in a book entitled Let’s Go Make Some History: Chronicles of the New Addiction Recovery Advocacy Movement. William White Papers.