Board of Directors

Dave Sheridan

Executive Director

Mr. Sheridan was a charter Board Member and past President of NARR and currently serves as NARR's Executive Director. He is a Board Member and Treasurer of the Chandler Lodge Foundation (North Hollywood, CA). He served for a decade on the board of Southern California’s Sober Living Network. He is a national speaker and writer on recovery residence issues, with a particular focus on the development of statewide systems for supporting quality recovery residences. He is also an advocate and resource on fair housing issues.

Dave’s professional background is in institutional investment management, with experience including quantitative portfolio management, investment strategy and new product development for investment firms and their institutional clients. Dave has held executive positions with firms including Bank of New York Mellon, Prudential Insurance Company and PIMCO. Clients have included large corporations, charitable foundations and fund management companies. Dave graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude with a B.A. in Economics, and MBA from the Haas Graduate School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Susan Blacksher

Standards, Conference

Susan B. Blacksher, M.S.W. has been honored for her extensive contributions over the last 52 years as a public servant, policy advisor and implementer, lecturer, and community activist in the field of substance abuse and addictions.  Her work over ten years in direct community services has included: recovery homes, a detoxification center and an outpatient center.  She also served as a Parole Officer for the State of California, carrying a caseload for one year while designing a detoxification center for parolees.  As a public servant for seventeen years Ms. Blacksher’s contributions advocating and establishing women’s services are extensive.  During her tenure with the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs she established the first Alcohol Related Birth Defects statewide committee, and was instrumental in establishing over twenty-three new programs for women (predominantly responding to the needs of ethnic minorities and underserved women).  She also worked closely with Betty Ford while writing the regulations for Chemical Dependency Recovery Hospitals.  She was one of the designers and served as one of the first public members of the Impaired Physicians Program.  Her public service includes: five years as Alcohol Program Administrator for Sacramento County, thirteen years as Deputy Director for the Alcohol Program of the State of California, and Executive Director of the California Association of Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR) since her retirement from the State in 1991.  Her responsibilities included executive oversight of the agency, advocating for social model programs and liaison with government and related agencies.  She also had management responsibility for several community programs including Gateway Foundation, a residential program for Women and Sacramento Recovery House, a residential program for men.  During her tenure at CAARR she built a strong fiscal base including the award of multiple contracts and grants.  She designed and implemented the successful CAARR Institute which enables individuals from all over the state to achieve the necessary education for certification.    She served as Executive Director of CAARR for 23 years until 2014 when she became the first CEO of the newly formed Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP).  She retired from her position at CCAPP in 2015 and has continued her career as Executive Director of Sacramento Recovery House, Inc. which includes residential services for men and women in separate facilities in the Sacramento area.  She serves on numerous boards and commissions and has received a multitude of awards and citations over her long and distinguished career including being one of the first six Americans to receive the inaugural “America Honors Recovery Award” from the prestigious Johnson Institute. Susan is a Charter Board Member of the National Alliance for  Recovery Residences.

Fred Way, Jr.

President

Finance (Chair)

Fred Way, MA, Founder and Executive Director of Philadelphia Association of Recovery Residences (PARR), Board President and Charter Board Member of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, and the former Administrator for Special Initiatives for the City of Philadelphia Office of Addiction Services in which he worked for 18 years before leaving in December of 2012.

Fred has dedicated his career to working and assisting individuals with substance abuse and mental challenges and creating an atmosphere of change within his oversight of over 100 staff members that he lead by example and helped create and mold leaders within the behavioral health system. He is a Board Member of Mother Daughter Bonding and the Philadelphia Recovery Residence Baseball League.

George Braucht

Secretary

Affiliate Services (Co-chair), Standards

Mr. Braucht is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor with over 14,000 hours of supervised psychotherapy and applied community psychology experience. His specialty is workforce development and continuous quality and outcome improvement consulting. George also enjoys facilitating behavioral health and social justice trainings with professional and peer service providers. He co-founded the Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist (CARES) Academy, a peer recovery coach curriculum that is operational in several states. Before retiring from the State of Georgia, George created the Transitional Housing for Offender Reentry Directory and the Reentry Partnership Housing initiative, online resources describing recovery residences and other housing that are re-certified bi-annually. Other criminal justice projects he directed include implementing a statewide recovery counseling program for people on parole using the Partners for Change Outcome Management System and an intensive Enhanced Supervision Program training for parole, probation and correctional officers that incorporated Effective Practices in Community Supervision. More recently he assisted in developing and delivering curricula for Recovery Residence Manager Certification and on using the Recovery Capital Scale. George serves on the Board of the Georgia Association of Recovery Residences, is a Certified Trainer with the Heat and Soul of Change Project and he is a Charter Board Member of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences where he current serves as Affiliates Committee Co-chair, Secretary and Technical Assistance Project Director.

Beth Fisher Sanders

President Emeritus

Standards (Chair)

Beth Fisher has worked in the field of addictions since 1987 as a social worker specializing in the field of addiction recovery, and has particular interest and expertise in recovery residences. In 1996, she founded Hope Homes Inc., a recovery residence system offering Levels 1-3 homes for men and women in Atlanta, GA , Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC. In addition, she is a Charter Board Member and founding President of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, a dynamic association whose mission is to promote standards and equip residential providers with professional tools to provide safety, community and advocacy for the recovering individual. Beth sits on the editorial board of Addiction Professional magazine, and is a frequent contributor addressing issues related to recovery residences. Beth often speaks publically on both a professional and personal basis about the power of community, for which she attributes much of her own long term recovery.

Susan O Binns

Conference (Chair)

Susan O. Binns is an expert in the field of addictions, including alcohol and other dependencies. as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor, National Certified Alcohol Counselor and a National Certified Recovery Specialist. Ms. Binns earned her degree in Human Development from Trevecca College. Susan has over 30 years of experience in developing and implementing treatment and prevention programs. During these years, she has been a therapist, manager, advocate, prevention specialist and held many leadership positions with various Nashville-based programs. She is currently a consultant, therapist and serves on several boards. Susan has been actively involved with all areas of the alcohol and drug field including, treatment, prevention, management, clinical and legislative action.

Ms. Binns is President of the Music City Recovery Resources Foundation, Inc. and in that capacity spearheaded the development and implementation of an extended care facility for recovering women. The creation of YANA, a safe home for recovering women, was the fulfillment of her long term desire to improve services for women in the Middle Tennessee Region. YANA stands for You Are Never Alone, which appropriately addresses the many fears women face in early recovery. In her role as the Executive Director of YANA, Susan has helped hundreds of women on a one on one and group basis. In addition to the work within the alcohol and drug field, Ms. Binns has had extensive business experience. She was the owner of two successful Nashville based businesses, one in printing and the other in investments and development. Susan is a Charter Board Member of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences.

In summary, Susan is a dynamic individual who understands addictions and the needs of chemically dependent individuals and is extremely practiced in her approach to the development and implementation of treatment and prevention services and programs.

Chris Edrington

Advocacy

Chris Edrington is the founder and CEO of St. Paul Sober Living, operating in Minnesota and Colorado. He is an officer and Past President of the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes, and a co-founder of NARR.

Amy Mericle, Ph.D

Data & Metrics (chair)

Dr. Amy A. Mericle is a Research Scientist in the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute. As an addiction health services researcher, her work focuses on identifying unmet need for services and gaps in the service delivery system as well as developing and testing innovative ways to address unmet need and bridge gaps in care. She completed doctoral studies at the University of Chicago and post-doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been conducting research on recovery housing and recovery support services in various parts of the US since 2010. Dr. Mericle joined the NARR board in 2014 and has served on the ad-hoc Data and Metrics Committee.

Jeff Van Treese

Bylaws (Chair)

Jeffery W. Van Treese is a lawyer and president of the Michigan Association of Recovery Residences. Over the last 35 years, he has worked in a wide variety of professional capacities in both the private and public sectors. In 1980, he began his practice as a municipal attorney and then in 1988 became Senior Vice President and General Counsel to a Palm Beach, Florida based Venture Capital Company. He received his Juris Doctor in 1980 from Wayne State University and his BBA in Finance, Magna Cum Laude in 1977 from Western Michigan University.

Mr. Van Treese currently serves on the NARR Board of Directors and acts as Chair of the Bylaws Committee and Parliamentarian. He also serves on various State of Michigan committees, including the Behavioral Health Advisory Council.

Mr. Van Treese’s ongoing mission is to advocate for stigma reduction for those in recovery from addiction, as well as the acceptance of recovery residences within our communities as a science-based tool to treat addiction. Mr. Van Treese is in long-term recovery and the beneficiary of having lived in a recovery residence.

Joel Bagley

Treasurer

Affiliate Services, Bylaws

Joel Bagley’s experience with recovery began with his teenage son entering treatment in 1996. The recovery experience was so transformative for their entire family that Joel soon left his corporate career in communications and became an addictions counselor. In 2003 Joel and his son opened a level 3 recovery residence, Purple Inc, in Atlanta GA. Joel has always believed in the power of community in recovery and as a result Purple built an alumni community of hundreds of young men who will always find an open door and a supportive listening ear. Joel served as president of GARR, the Georgia Association of Recovery Residences and was instrumental in the formation of National Alliance of Recovery Residences. Joel also has a passion for helping small business owners and in 2015 was certified as a coach for entrepreneurs who want to grow a heart centered business.

Darrell Mitchell

Board President

Over the last several years, Darrell Mitchell has led and impacted change in the recovery residence field at the state and national levels. He is the Founder of the Indiana Affiliation of Recovery Residences (INARR) and serves as the President of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR). In 2017, Darrell was instrumental in the drafting and passing of legislation that placed Recovery Housing standards into Indiana Law. Darrell studied Public Relations, and Marketing at Purdue University. As an adult student at Indiana Wesleyan University, Darrell has earned a Bachelors of Science in Addictions Counseling and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA).

In 2016, Mental Health America of Indiana presented Darrell with the "Heroes for Recovery Consumer Advocate Award." In 2018, he was honored with the prestigious "Leadership Award" by the Indiana Housing & Community Development and the Indiana Affordable Housing Council.

In 2019 the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked Darrell to author a paper for "The Rural Community Action Guide." The RCAG has been distributed nationally to equip rural leaders with critical information from lessons learned from the frontlines of prevention, treatment, and recovery in rural America. In January 2020, Darrell was invited to the White House to attend ONDCP's launch of the Rural Community Action Guide and to meet with senior leaders.

https://www.aspireindiana.org/blog-post/mitchell-visits-white-house-in-fight-against-addiction

In September 2022 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced the winners of the first-ever behavioral health Recovery Innovation Challenge. The goal of the challenge was to identify innovations developed by peer-run or community-based organizations that advance recovery. SAMHSA received more than 3,000 submissions from organizations across the country. Under Darrell's leadership Progress House was the only Indiana organization and Recovery House in the country to win this distinguished award.

Darrell serves as Vice President of Recovery Communities with Aspire Indiana Health, overseeing the integration of recovery principles and practices across Aspire's healthcare system, including Substance Use Disorder resident and recovery facilities, medical, outpatient behavioral health, housing, and employment services. Darrell amplifies the voice of lived experience of the populations served by Aspire and within local, state, and national communities while also serving as the Executive Director of Progress House.

Memberships:

  • NARR Board of Directors (President)
  • INARR Ex Officio Board Member
  • MHAI Board of Directors
  • Indiana Recovery Council
  • Opioid Response Network
Darrell lives in Indianapolis, IN with his wife Tracey, has two adult children and three spoiled dogs.

Jennifer Miles, Ph.D

Data & Metrics

Jennifer Miles received her Ph.D from the Heller School for Social Policy, Brandeis University in Massachusetts. Her research focuses on the role of recovery support services in assisting individuals with substance use disorders, and her dissertation research examines the effects of a system of licensed recovery residences in Massachusetts. Prior to her graduate studies, Ms. Miles worked at the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia working on substance use treatment research in a variety of settings. Ms. Miles joined the NARR board in 2017, serves on the Data and Metrics Committee, and is a co-author on the SAMHSA-commissioned NARR policy guide on MAT in recovery residences.

Erin Helms

Advocacy, Data & Metrics

Erin Helms is the Executive Director at The Woodrow Project, recovery housing for women. She is an independently licensed chemical dependency counselor in the State of Ohio. Ms. Helms completed her undergraduate education at The Ohio State University and earned her master’s degree in Addiction Counseling at Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies. She has been employed in a variety of settings ranging from Franklin County Health Department to working as primary counselor in both the inpatient and outpatient settings at Glenbeigh Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center. Erin is passionate about advocating for persons in recovery. She is a Board Member of The National Alliance for Recovery Residences, member of the Faces and Voices of Recovery Public Policy Committee, Cuyahoga County Opiate Task Force, Ohio Recovery Housing Treasurer, and Northeast Ohio Recovery Residence Network board member.