Speakers for the next NCAD will be announced in early 2019. Below are speakers from 2018.
Cindy Westcott
Cindy Westcott BA, BS, LCSW
Clinical Director
Milestones
Cindy Westcott serves as the clinical director of Milestones and has over 29 years of experience as a licensed clinical social worker. Her experience includes private practice, and she is the founder of The Psychological Trauma and Wellness Center of Memphis. Westcott has developed and facilitated IOP and partial hospitalization programs for the treatment of traumatic grief and traumatic stress. She also created weekend intensive programs for impaired professional in treatment for addiction and underlying disorders. Additionally, Westcott is a level 2 EMDR trained clinician and also utilizes other innovative therapies to address the acute and long term effects of childhood and other forms of trauma and abuse. Westcott has spoken locally and nationally on a variety of topics including cultural diversity, women and empowerment, and other topics related to grief and trauma recovery.

Michael White
Michael White MCJ
Director of Justice Systems Programs
Community Medical Services
Michael White has worked in the field of substance abuse for over eight years along with two years in family services. White graduated from Arizona State University with a Master’s in Criminal Justice. Michael specializes in program development between community agencies and judicial systems and has developed, implemented and supported the integration of medication-assisted treatment into county and state correctional facilities located in Alaska, Arizona, Montana and North Dakota. White has been successful at developing a collective impact model to support system partners who historically did not coordinate with MAT. His experience includes working within family courts and the state Department of Child Safety, and obtaining resources for pregnant women who are struggling with substance use disorders. Michael is a national presenter in the areas of collective impact as an effective tool for the continuum of care, pregnancy and opioid dependence, along with utilizing medication-assisted treatment for incarcerated offenders.

Benjamin Wong
Benjamin Wong BSc, MA
Clinical Counselor/Practicum Supervisor
Richmond Addiction Services Society
Benjamin Wong is a registered clinical counselor in British Columbia, Canada, and has been serving as staff clinician at Richmond Addiction Service Society, one of a handful of publicly-funded sites in Canada that offer counseling to individuals and families affected by problem video gaming. He also runs a private practice in the treatment of behavioral addictions in Vancouver. Prior to addictions work, Wong held clinical and leadership positions in vocational rehabilitation and school counseling. He advocates for parental involvement from early infancy in a child’s development and the responsible use of electronic screens to enhance learning, social skills, resilience and mental health fitness. Wong completed undergraduate training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and graduate training in counseling psychology at Colorado Christian University in Denver, Colorado.

Robert Wong
Robert Wong MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, Director of Research and Education
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Alameda Health System - Highland Hospital

Sarah Zemore
Sarah Zemore PhD
Senior Scientist
National Alcohol Research Center
Sarah Zemore, PhD is a Senior Scientist at the Alcohol Research Group (ARG), Associate Director of ARG's NIAAA-funded National Alcohol Research Center, and Director of ARG's T32 training program. Dr. Zemore has wide-ranging interests in alcohol and drugs, with particular focus on social aspects of treatment and recovery. She has an extensive record of research on the efficacy of mutual help groups and their mechanisms of action, and recently led an NIAAA-funded study that collected national data to examine the comparative efficacy of 12-step groups and three secular alternatives: Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, and SMART. Dr. Zemore has also studied treatment motivation and processes more broadly. In other work, she has focused on racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol consumption, problems, and treatment. Dr. Zemore serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs and is Chair of NIAAA’s IRG committee on Epidemiology, Prevention, & Behavior Research.