Martha Woodroof

…author of How to Stop Screwing Up: Twelve Steps to a Real Life and a Pretty Good Time, is an award-winning public radio reporter whose features air frequently on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Marketplace. Martha Woodroof was born in the South, went to boarding school and college in New England, lived in Texas for a while, then fetched up in Virginia, where she’s been ever since. She co-owned a couple of Charlottesville restaurants in her thirties (built around her cooking), then turned to broadcasting, finding true professional love in public radio. She’s currently a reporter for WMRA in Virginia. Her ambition is to do a good job of telling other peoples stories, and her work can be heard nationally on National Public Radio and Marketplace. She is effervescence personified and her energy is contagious. She lives with her husband in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Their closest neighbors are cows.

Lee Stringer

…is a writer, a lecturer, a teacher and a recovering crack addict. Author of the critically acclaimed “Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street”, (a 1998 NY Times notable book), 2000’s “Like Shaking Hands With God: A Conversation About Writing” (with Kurt Vonnegut) and 2004’s “Sleepaway School: Stories of a Boy’s Life”, Stringer began his career in the news bureaus of public Television stations in Dallas where he worked for Jim Lerher and Detroit and later served as editor of Street News for several years. His commentaries can be heard in the All Things Considered archives on NPR.org. Lee Stringer lived on the streets from the early eighties until the mid-nineties. He is a former editor and columnist of Street News. His essays and articles have appeared in a variety of other publications, including The Nation, The New York Times, and Newsday. He lives in Mamaroneck, New York, and is currently finished his fourth book. He will also be presenting a workshop entitled “Writing Through a Crisis” at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, Virginia on March 27, 2008, hosted by The Second Road.

Mark Harris

…M.A., coordinates The Recovery Center, a project of the Multicultural Substance Abuse Prevention Program at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. As a national, state, and local level consultant he has written successful grants, co-authored curricula, and worked in successful and innovative prevention programs in California and Oregon. He has provided technical assistance to numerous community coalitions on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, Gang and Violence Prevention, and other Multicultural Issues. Mark’s writing will grab you, make you think, and will be sure to elicit a response. He is bold and direct in communicating his ideas and his sometimes radical thoughts concerning recovery make for some animated dialogue.

William C. Moyers

…vice president of external affairs, “carries the message” about addiction and recovery into the public arena, especially to policy makers and civic groups across America. He uses his own personal experiences to highlight the power of addiction and the power of recovery. His life as an active crack addict is intensely and honestly described in his book “Broken”, which was published in 2006. He has been in recovery since 1994.
In 1998 his efforts were honored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), which awarded him and his family its highest achievement award the Gold Key. He and his parents, Bill and Judith Moyers, also received the Arthur Liman Public Interest Award from the Legal Action Center. This award salutes families and individuals whose work has advanced public understanding of public policy issues related to addiction. Before first joining Hazelden in 1996, Moyers was an award-winning journalist for 15 years. He has worked at CNN, Newsday and various other newspapers around the country. In 1981, Moyers received his BA degree in journalism from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. He has appeared on Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the Today program, and his work has been featured in the New York Times and Newsweek magazine.

Ginger Bauler

…is the content manager for The Second Road and, for most of her “other” professional life, she was the manager of a research laboratory at The University of Virginia Medical Center. She is a native of Chicago, where she did her undergraduate and graduate work at Loyola University. She is a recovering addict/alcoholic and is committed to seeing the vision of The Second Road spread to a worldwide audience. Her honest blogs address issues everyone in recovery faces on a daily basis. She loves her kid, doggies, movies, ice cream, shoes, and working out… in that order.

Etta

I am a 40-year-old healthcare provider, runner, and recovering alcoholic with severe and persistent depression. I grew up in a “dysfunctional” family but excelled in school. I played college athletics and still enjoy competitive running. My first career was in mental health, and I remain a vocal mental health advocate.

Allen Berger, Ph.D.

…is the clinical director of La Ventana, a treatment center for men located in Malibu, California. He is also the author of Love Secrets Revealed, a book about making relationships work, and 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery, a book about avoiding relapse through self-awareness and right action. For the past thirty-six years, Dr. Berger has been on his own personal journey in recovery as well as helping thousands of men and women discover a new way of life, freedom from addiction and its insanity. You can learn more about Dr. Berger and his work at www.abphd.com.

The Junky’s Wife

…is a writer, teacher, and a student of yoga. She blogs at TheJunkysWife.com and manages The Junky’s Wives Club at jwclub.ning.com.

Courtney H.

Courtney H. moved to Charlottesville, VA, two years ago from upstate New York in search of warmer weather. She also found a loving and welcoming community where she has learned the fine art of sober living. When she isn’t working, Courtney can be found writing, playing outside, or enjoying the benefits of a membership in the AA fellowship.

Bill Webb

(please don’t call him “Bill W.”)
…is a recovering alcoholic, addict, and codependent. At various times he has made his living as a lifeguard, pilot, police officer and administrator, executive chauffeur, and at rehab jobs including lab tech, detox tech and counselor. Bill has written extensively in a variety of venues — mainly technical journals, police publications and other places you almost certainly have never heard of — and at one time taught in a police academy. He is currently in charge of security for a 936-unit condominium complex in South Florida, and is taking his retirement one weekend at a time.
In his dotage, Bill has become a prolific blogger, and was until recently associate editor at Backwash.com, in charge of vetting and guiding new writers for that site. For fun he spends time with his family, reads, studies Eastern philosophy, surfs the Web, watches birds, takes pictures, tends to his blogs and his recovery, and writes (even some poetry, it is rumored).
Bill’s wife, Michele, is an addiction counselor who specializes in grief-related issues. They drank and drugged together, went to treatment together, and have been trudging the road of happy destiny together for a number of years. Although they practice their recovery separately, they share two daughters, two wonderful sons-in-law, two granddaughters, and two black cats.

Chris Mecham

…is a recovering methamphetamine addict and alcoholic in Boise, Idaho. In the earliest days of his recovery, Chris scoured the Internet looking for anyone sharing real experience about recovery from meth addiction. The unsuccessful search lead him to become the voice he was looking for, sharing his experience as a gay man in recovery in a widely read and anonymously written recovery blog. His blog is the Last Chance Texaco. Chris is a contributing author of the Idaho Actors Collective’s Meth Project and past board member of Supportive Housing and Innovative Partnerships, Inc, a non-profit organization providing safe and sober housing to men and women in early recovery. Chris’s work is featured on Wellsphere.com and in their popular health magazine, Wellsphere360.

Jason Schwartz

(LMSW, ACSW, CAAC, CCS-M)
…is the Clinical Director of Dawn Farm, overseeing treatment services for its two residential treatment sites, sub-acute detox, outpatient treatment services & detention-based juvenile treatment program. Jason is also an adjunct faculty at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work and the University’s Department of Leadership and Counseling.

Jason’s recovery began in 1990 and is forever grateful for the love, compassion and patience that was shown to him by the recovering men and women of East Lansing, MI. He’s especially grateful to have found a career that allows him to help other addicts and help prepare other professional helpers meet addicts with hope, compassion and an understanding of addiction recovery.

Jason blogs at http://www.dawnfarm.org/blog.html