May/June, 2010, President's Report
Posted by Rhonda Messamore (rmessamore) on May 14 2010
President's Corner >>

This past quarter has been one of great challenges, organizationally as well as within our profession and industry.  As you know, our ED, Rhonda Messamore was out on disability.  Her absence was felt by many and has proven to me once again what a great asset she is to our organization.  I had the opportunity to visit with her shortly after her surgery, and I could not believe her resiliency and ability to move around after such a serious surgery.  She expressed her gratitude over and over to the leadership and membership of this fine organization for the kind words, prayers, cards, and calls.  Rhonda finally met her match---her own doctor!  By doing so, she is coming back even stronger.  Welcome back Rhonda. 

I recently went to WashingtonDC on April 10-14^th with Warren Daniels and met up with our national lobbyist Andrew Kessler.  The trip proved to be very productive in completing eleven (11) appointments.  Two key appointments were non-congressional: one was with Laura Maristany, Executive Director of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.  We introduced who we are and inquired about how we could meet the needs of our Latino communities in California more effectively by incorporating more culturally-competent curriculums in our alcohol and drug studies programs throughout our educational institutions as well as accessing funding for such.  We then met with Guillermo Brito, Ph.D, who was a consultant with the National Latino Behavioral Health Specialists.  He informed us about a mental health proposal that he was part of that excluded substance abuse counselor representation.  He encouraged us to be a part of this Latino-specific effort and referred us to the chief researcher, Dr. Chapa, who works for the Office of Minority Health (OMH.)

Our first congressional meeting was with Philip Tahtakran for Rep. Adam Schiff.  Then we paid a visit to Nancy Pelosi’s staffer, Margaret Wilmoth, Ph.D, RN, who is a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow.  She seemed thoroughly impressed with our passion and proactive approach. She expressed a need to educate nurses more about addiction and access to care for reservists in the military who are proving to abuse tobacco/nicotine.  We thanked Ms. Wilmoth and Speaker Pelosi for her substance abuse treatment provisions in the Health Care Reform bill. After lunch on the first day we met up with Ane Romero, staffer for Grace Napolitano.  She gave us some referrals to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.  We also thanked Ms. Romero and Ms. Napolitano for her advocacy with mental health. Our close out meeting for the first day was with Amy Fisher for Rep. Lois Capps.  This meeting set the precedence for the following day’s meetings in discussing the re-authorization of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funding.  Warren Daniels really was effective in conveying the need to generate funding to our profession which has an aging workforce. 

Travis Moore staffer for Harry Waxman asked if we would be open to providing a position paper regarding the re-authorization for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) as well. We then met up with staffer, Kari Lacosta, for Doris Matsui who has an office in

Sacramento.  We offered to pay Congresswoman Matsui a visit in Sacramento in an effort to establish mutual support.  Next was Britton Specht, staffer for Tom McClintock.  McClintock is on the Education and Labor Committee along with Rep. Miller, who is also involved with the re-authorization of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funding.

Warren, Andrew, and I met up with Geoff Laredo of NIDA, who our leadership had met with on separate occasions in trying to collaborate on testing/training efforts in

California through CFAAP.  It was great to hear of the good work that NIDA is doing with the “research to practice” initiative.  Andrew attended their Blending Initiative Conference in April and informed me of the discussions related to diverse populations.  Our last meeting was with staffer, Debbie Jessup, for Lucille Roybal-Allard.  We thanked her for the STOP Act and Congresswoman Allard’s support in the substance abuse provisions in the Health Care Reform bill.  We offered a letter of support for the re-authorization of the STOP Act.  I continue to be amazed at the wealth of knowledge that both Warren Daniels and Andrew Kessler have regarding national legislative issues impacting our profession.  CAADAC is represented well!

I am planning on attending the West Coast Symposium on Addictive Disorders on June 3-5 in La Quinta, Ca. (Region 1N.) and plan on having a couple of regional leaders helping me represent CAADAC and offer support to this first annual symposium. Great speakers include Dr. Kevin McCauley, Dr. Andrea Barthwell, Rob Weiss, Jim Fent, Dr. Patrick DeChello and more.

Last changed: May 15 2010 at 2:38 PM