In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network, we're taking stock of where we've been, and looking ahead to where we are going. We invite you to listen to our Pearls of Wisdom podcast series. Each episode examines a different decade in our network's history, and features conversations with the people who shaped and are shaping the field. In this series, hosts Laurie Krom and Maxine Henry of the ATTC Network Coordinating Office will talk with ATTC staff – past and present – about the history, challenges, and evolution of the network.
Featured guests include: Nancy Roget, Mountain Plains ATTC co-director; Denna Vandersloot, Northwest ATTC co-director; Pat Stilen, former director of the Mid-America ATTC; Lonnetta Albright, former director of the Great Lakes ATTC; Maureen Nichols, South Southwest ATTC director; Todd Molfenter, Great Lakes ATTC co-director; Andrew Wilson, Central East ATTC co-director; Estela Besosa-Martinez, project coordinator of the Northeast and Caribbean ATTC in Puerto Rico; and Abby Roach-Moore, technology transfer specialist with the Opioid Response Network.
In the second episode of our series, host and ATTC NCO co-director Laurie Krom talks with Pat Stilen, former director of the Mid-America ATTC, and Lonnetta Albright, former executive director of the Great Lakes ATTC, about the growth of the network during its second decade.
Lonnetta Albright spent 17 years as executive director of the Great Lakes ATTC, including the last five years as Principal Investigator. She is an executive director of the John Maxwell Leadership Certified Team.
In reviewing the impact of the ATTC Network during that timeframe, Albright emphasized the value of education and transformation provided by the network, particularly from its seminal product, The Change Book: A Blueprint for Technology Transfer.
“I think the greatest gift the ATTCs brought to the field, and continues to, is to tell the truth and give facts,” she said. “And I’m not just talking about evidence-based practices but helping people to think. So that Change Book… helped us articulate what technology transfer is all about.”
Pat Stilen first became familiar with the ATTCs as a consumer, when she was working for a managed care company, before becoming a consultant and then joining the network full-time when it was still known as “The Addiction Training Center.” She retired from Mid-America ATTC in March 2022.
For Stilen, one of the most significant contributions of the ATTC Network during that time period was creating and developing core competencies to help with professional development in treatment and recovery services.
“We were still struggling with competencies as substance use counselors,” she said. “So I really knew from a personal standpoint, having been a substance use counselor myself and then trying to do training, that we really needed those competencies. And that would not have happened without the ATTCs.”
The opinions expressed herein are the views of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), SAMHSA, CSAT or the ATTC Network. No official support or endorsement of DHHS, SAMHSA, or CSAT for the opinions of authors presented in this e-publication is intended or should be inferred.