News & Updates — FORE Announcements

We are pleased to welcome H. Westley Clark, M.D., M.P.H., J.D., Dean’s Executive Professor of Public Health at Santa Clara University, to FORE’s board. Clark is a psychiatrist, lawyer, and expert on substance use disorder and treatment, pain management, and psychopharmacology. He also brings a wealth of knowledge about the legal, ethical, and policy issues associated with addiction and behavioral health.

“Dr. Clark knows firsthand what works to help people diagnosed with substance use disorder — and how our policies and regulations can impede or catalyze access to treatment,” says Andrea Barthwell, M.D., FORE’s board chair. “We’re thrilled to have his leadership”.

As director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) from 1998 to 2014, Clark led the nation’s effort to make evidence-based addiction treatment more accessible to all Americans. That work informed his contributions to Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health, for which he served as the section editor for treatment in 2016.

He also spent more than a decade providing clinical care to our nation’s veterans, first as the chief of the Substance Abuse Inpatient Unit and later as chief of the Associated Substance Abuse Programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, Calif.

Dr. Clark has been a strong advocate for preserving the privacy protections that prevent the unauthorized disclosure of a patient’s treatment for substance use disorder, which is vital to encouraging people to seek care. “No other medical condition evokes the same societal prejudice or sanctions as addiction,” Dr. Clark wrote in an editorial for STAT. He has also written about the role of trauma in substance use disorder and the importance of integrating other medical services, including hepatitis treatment, into addiction care.

Clark has received several awards, including: the 2015 Lisa Mojer-Torres Award from Faces &Voices of Recovery, the 2015 James Ralph Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service from the Black Psychiatrists of America, the 2015 Annual Award from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the 2008 John P. McGovern Award from the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Clark earned a B.A. in chemistry from Wayne State University. He earned his M.D. and M.P.H. from the University of Michigan and completed a psychiatric residency at its University Hospital Neuropsychiatric Institute. He also completed a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is board certified in psychiatry with a specialty certification in addiction medicine from the American Board of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Clark earned his J.D. from Harvard University Law School and is a member of the Washington DC Bar.

“I’m honored to be part of FORE’s efforts to increase access to treatment for opioid use disorder and promote innovative solutions to a pressing public health crisis,” Clark says “It’s an opportunity to bring my experience to bear on an issue I care deeply about.”