BRETT SAARELA, Vice President, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) by the State of New York, is a mental health professional.  She received her BA from Carleton College and her Master of Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work, City University of New York. She practiced for ten years as a psychotherapist in New York City (NYC) specializing in mental health and addiction treatment for older adults in psychiatric in-patient units and out-patient clinics.  She further focused her practice by combining a variety of motivational and cognitive-behavioral techniques to treat often- home-bound elderly adults with co-occurring mental health and addictive disorders.   She has been actively involved in SMART Recovery in the United States since 2001 and was a founding member of the NYC Chapter.  Ms. Saarela was nominated for an Emerging Social Work Leader award by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in 2007 for her work with the older adult population and for a Social Work Image award in 2012 by the New York Chapter of NASW for her work with SMART Recovery NYC.  A board member of SMART Recovery since 2009, she became vice president in 2011.   After relocating to London in 2014, Ms. Saarela became a SMART Recovery UK trustee.

RANDOLPH (RANDY) C. LINDEL, Assistant Treasurer, holds a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from the University of Washington. In his twenty-five year advertising agency career, Mr. Lindel worked with the J. Walter Thompson and McCann-Erickson agencies, was a founding member and director of account services for the Backer & Spielvogel agency, and was COO of Bates Worldwide before becoming a marketing consultant. His specialties include competitive positioning, communications strategy, agency selection, and planning facilitation. His association with SMART Recovery began in 2009 as a program participant. Mr. Lindel then became a meeting facilitator at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2010, a member of the SMART Board of Directors in 2015, and treasurer in 2017. He has participated in drafting the current editions of the SMART Handbook and SMART Facilitators Training Manual. He regularly contributes to the marketing, communications, and website needs of the organization.

WILLIAM (BILL) STEARNS, Secretary, is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and holds an MS in Corrections from Xavier University in Cincinnati.  He has a JD from Salmon P. Chase School of Law at Northern Kentucky University.   Mr. Stearns has been an attorney in his own general practice law firm in the greater Cincinnati area for 44 years.  For some 30 years, he served as a part-time magistrate in a local juvenile court that he helped establish and over which he presided.  He became actively involved in SMART Recovery in January 2011, beginning as a participant then moving on to become a meeting facilitator.  He has facilitated at least two meetings per week for the last four years, including the first in-jail meeting in the State of Ohio.  In January 2015, Bill was elected to the Board of Directors of SMART Recovery and currently holds the office of secretary.

ROBERT MCDONOUGH, Treasurer, 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.