ELAINE APPEL hails from the greater Boston area and graduated from the New England School of Art and Design. She also attended Boston College, taking courses in Business Administration and Psychology before becoming a sales executive. This background, along with her personal history of recovery, enabled her to become a volunteer, a meeting facilitator, and SMART’s first regional coordinator in New England, all in rapid succession. She served as regional coordinator for ten years and become a member of the Board of Directors in 2004. Ms. Appel later relocated to Columbia, South Carolina where she continues to bring to the SMART Board of Directors outstanding experience in community organization, activism, and charitable work. She has particular expertise in the formation of nonprofit organizations, including the drafting of operational documents such as bylaws.

MICHELLE ELKINS received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Pepperdine University located in Malibu, California. Ms. Elkins held various roles of increasing responsibility at a large multinational conglomerate, her last role as Director of Information Technology. Her expertise stems from over twenty years of experience in all aspects of information technology, including executive decision support, large-scale project management, continuous process improvements, disaster recovery, business continuity, P&L control, budgeting, vendor contracts, and staff management. She has consistently applied her focus on technology innovation and best-practice operational structures to contribute significant value and ROI in key leadership roles. She became involved in SMART Recovery in December 2013 and then became a SMART online facilitator. In addition to facilitating weekly meetings, she is helping SMART improve their technology platforms in order to better serve the SMART online community.

TIMOTHY (TIM) EDDY earned his PhD in Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany, specializing in comparative and evolutionary psychology. He is currently an  associate professor of psychology at Salem State University in Massachusetts where he teaches introductory psychology and evolutionary psychology. Dr. Eddy has published articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has current research interests in the interactions of humans and animals. He also has served as a reviewer in academic journals including Behavioral and Brain Sciences, published by Cambridge University Press and Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science. A participant in SMART Recovery since 2012, Dr. Eddy quickly became a volunteer as well. He now facilitates two meetings per week and frequently fills in for others when facilitators are unavailable.

WILLIAM (BILL) GREER, earned a BA cum laude from Lawrence University and an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Bill has forty years of leadership and communications experience in the nonprofit sector as a communications executive for the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and SmithBucklin, North America’s largest nonprofit association management firm. He authored the FMI Communications Manual and chapters on communications and information technology for SmithBucklin’s Complete Guide to Nonprofit Management. As regional coordinator for the Washington, DC to Virginia corridor, he has promoted the SMART program at Veterans Administration and other military facilities, prisons, drug courts, and high schools. He has facilitated SMART meetings for people recovering from addictions, Family & Friends meetings, and InsideOut meetings for correctional facilities. Mr. Greer has served on SMART’s Court Outreach Committee since 2013. He has provided communications counsel to the national office to spotlight meeting growth and promote SMART programs. He joined the SMART Board of Directors in 2017 to elaborate strategic communications policy and assist in the development of communications practices to support, sustain, and accelerate meeting growth.

THOMAS (TOM) HORVATH, is a founding board member of SMART Recovery. A graduate of St. Johns College, he went on to earn a PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology at San Diego. After serving as an active duty Navy psychologist for three years, he established a practice as a clinical psychologist. In 1985 he founded Practical Recovery, which offers a self-empowering alternative to 12-step and disease-oriented addiction treatment. Dr. Horvath is past president and fellow of the San Diego Psychological Association. In 2015 he received their Distinguished Contribution to Psychology award. He was appointed by Speaker Willie Brown in 1992 to the California Controlled Substances Prescription Advisory Council, which produced recommendations regarding California’s triplicate prescription program for controlled substances. Dr. Horvath was elected in 2016 as a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is a past president of the APA Society of Addiction Psychology (Division 50), the world’s largest organization of addictive behavior psychologists. He has taught graduate school substance misuse courses since 2010 and is the author of Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions.

ROBERT MCDONOUGH is the Senior Research Manager of Angel Oak Capital Advisors, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor with over $7 billion in assets under management. He leads the Advisory Services practice which serves the investment, risk management, and capital markets needs of financial institutions. He manages client engagements which include investment portfolio risk and performance assessments. Rob coordinates Angel Oak’s research and publication activities on a variety of financial and risk management topics. He also develops and delivers technical training and executive education. He has over 25 years’ experience leading risk management consulting engagements and delivering training seminars for financial institutions, central banks and government-sponsored enterprises around the world. Rob founded Strategic Financial Solutions, Inc., a risk management consultancy, in 2001. He previously was a senior manager with Andersen Consulting’s Financial Services practice. He also served in the Federal Reserve System for 12 years in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Rob earned an M.B.A. in Finance and Economics from Georgia State University and a B.B.A. from Emory University. His personal recovery journey gives him a passionate desire to give back to the recovery community in a variety of ways. In addition to his Board responsibilities, Rob brings to bear his financial and investment experience on the SMART Finance Committee. He also co-facilitates a SMART meeting in Atlanta.