Learn about your new board members
Ken Carter – President
Ken Carter is the lead psychiatrist at the primary care/mental health integrative health program at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bay Times, Florida. In addition to consulting and supervising with regard to medication management, his team also provides non-pharmaceutical intervention, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and a variety of mindfulness-based therapies. He works closely with the VA’s Whole Health Program that provides integrated complementary and alternative treatment approaches.
The following is a statement that Ken Carter shared with the NADA office team as we meditated on the term “professional†and how it relates to our approach and practices in NADA:
“One of the very special things about the original Lincoln Model is the foundation in the voices of the weakest and least of us on the political/economic spectrum. These voices and their activism effectively challenged professionally driven political/economic forces that remain so strong, often so hard, and often so disgracefully oblivious to the needs of the weakest and least of us. Professional political/economic forces are a central factor in why Lincoln Recovery Center ultimately closed after 40 years of unimpeachable impact on the local community, our country, and our world-at-large—the same professional political/economic forces continue to demonstrate a dearth of interest and support in empowering of us to make the model of what Lincoln accomplished more widely known and accessible to the weakest and the least of us.â€
Marquitta Duvernay – Treasurer
My experience in the field of substance use and men-tal health has lent itself to my interest in participat-ing on the NADA board as a collaborator, and in the role of Treasurer. The most poignant experience stems from be-ing a Public Health Advisor with SAMHSA, and the many visits made to rural and Native American communities.
Oftentimes, services provided in the communities were supported by what the treatment field has called “nontraditional†forms of treatment, which for the communities were identified as “traditional.†Treatments supported by the community lacked the need for medication and re-lied on traditional or natural treatment models such as acupuncture. Hence, my appreciation for the use of naturalistic approaches to managing and treating illnesses.
Currently, as a counselor and leader in the behavioral health field, my passion lies with identifying and/or advocating for the use of non-narcotic and traditional treatments, such as acudetox, that not only address the outward manifestations of illness, but, most importantly, the internal. Having the opportunity to parlay my passion as a NADA board member will further permit me to not only share but to also gain knowledge that will support others on a national and world platform.
Marquitta L. DuVernay has more than 30 years of experience in behavioral health management, training, consultation and service delivery on a federal and state level. She hopes to see the NADA membership expand over the next few years, while helping to advance the NADA protocol within the fields of drug treatment, mental health and trauma.
Warren Leggett, Jr. – Secretary
Warren Leggett, Jr. has been elected as secretary to the NADA board. He is currently a faculty member at Bowie State University, the oldest historically black college and university in Maryland. He studied to be an acudetox specialist with Dr. Smith and Ken Carter in 1998, and is currently training to be a NADA trainer under Carter’s mentorship.
At that time, he was working in chemical dependency at the probation and parole resource center at the D.C. Superior Court. He was also a board member for the D.C. Board of Professional Alcohol and Drug Counselors.
Leggett retired from the above position in 2002 when he returned to school to get his Ph.D. in psychology. He is part of the department of counseling at Bowie State and working to have the NADA protocol become part of their standardized curriculum.
The acudetox law in Maryland is inclusive around the use of the NADA protocol in substance use treatment programs – but not so in neighboring D.C. However the D.C. government does grant reciprocity to graduates of Bowie State’s Peer Recovery Support Counseling and Peer Recovery Support Specialist training program. Leggett’s strategy is to train all the students from D.C. and let them go back and advocate.
According to Jack Monell, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Justice Studies at Winston-Salem State University, Warren Leggett’s “dedication in federal law enforcement extends almost 20 years of service. A clinician as well, he is able to address the clinical needs exhibited by the federal offenders his team supervises. As an administrator, clinician, and academician, Leggett’s wealth of knowledge has made him an expert in the area of community corrections, particularly probation and parole and addiction services.â€
Julie-Anne Nayler – Canadian RT Rep.
Julie-Anne Nayler is a registered psycho-therapist, NADA trainer, certified personal trainer and owner of a company called Her Inner Heart. She has worked in the field of mental health and addictions for over 12 years, as well as in shelters, schools and the hospital. For most of that time she has been a senior addictions counselor working for Lakeridge Health hospital. As part of her role, she has developed a partnership working with the Toronto Police Academy, court officers and security companies – training their staff on addictions and mental health in order to reduce stigma and grow competency.
Becoming an ADS and registered trainer complements the work she does with her clients. Joining the NADA board as the Canadian registered trainer representative comes with enthusiasm to bring insight, energy and mindfulness to NADA practice in Canada.