Neil Campbell, MS

Neil Campbell, MS, is the Executive Director of the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse (GCSA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the impact of recovery in communities through education, advocacy, training, and peer recovery support services. She is a passionate advocate who understands the importance of sharing her lived experience in recovery to spread a message of hope to individuals, allies, and community partners that recovery is possible for everyone. Ms. Campbell’s current emphasis is to influence public policy through a recovery-positive legislative agenda, to increase the peer recovery workforce, and to change the social norms surrounding people with substance use disorders.

Ms. Campbell co-founded the Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist (CARES) training program in 2011, a process through which people with lived experience in recovery receive the skills and knowledge they need to become state-certified peer recovery coaches. CARES has prepared nearly 1,000 individuals in recovery to deliver Medicaid billable support services in behavioral health, criminal justice, and healthcare systems. Ms. Campbell believes that recovery happens in communities and by lifting up community partnerships. Ms. Campbell’s community recovery initiatives include community listening sessions in partnership with the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network and the annual Addiction Recovery Awareness Day at the State Capitol.

Ms. Campbell has extensive experience working in criminal justice systems, including law enforcement, adult corrections, and juvenile justice. She has served in several capacities in state and county governments, from direct services to executive management. Through her work, she has gained first-hand knowledge of the need for better support and services in these systems. She has worked most of her career to build community alternatives to incarceration and institutionalization. Ms. Campbell is dedicated to fostering growth in communities to support recovery.

In her role as a recovery advocate, Ms. Campbell carries the message of hope in recovery everywhere she can. From jails and prisons to homeless or domestic violence shelters, to community events, she speaks out loud to let people know that recovery is not the exception, but the expectation. Her passion is to ensure voices of lived experiences are heard and uplifted and that stories of hope are used as a basis for changing the way addiction and mental health are perceived.