National Office
PETE RUBINAS
Our Acting Executive Director Pete Rubinas has been a SMART Recovery participant, facilitator, and Regional Coordinator. He comes to his current position with a diverse set of experiences that he plans to use to help SMART Recovery USA thrive. Pete’s last position saw him lead a local Montessori non-profit from a one-room private preschool into a thriving private preschool and public charter school serving children through 8th grade. In that role, he did extensive work creating an effective governance structure across three separate non-profit organizations to keep the community focused on its mission while complying with the requirements of being a public school. Prior to that, Pete spent 10 years as an internal control auditor and consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Pete believes that SMART Recovery should be available in every community and to individuals from all walks of life. He has studied how power is held in organizations, and how to shift that power so that more voices are included in the decision-making that occurs. He passionately believes that empowerment is the ultimate goal in supporting those with addictive behaviors and those who love them. If we collectively stay focused on empowering one another at all levels of this organization, someday soon SMART Recovery will be a household name and the demographics of those we serve will have expanded dramatically from where we started.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Pete has worked hard to build a balanced life that includes time for his family, birding, native pollinator gardening, and running. He continues to facilitate a local SMART Recovery meeting and an online Family & Friends meeting in Chapel Hill, NC on a volunteer basis. His mantra is “You are enough.”
CHRISTI ALICEA
As Assistant Executive Director of SMART Recovery USA, Christi Alicea oversees operations, fundraising, finances, technology, and other support roles. She works with the Board of Directors to achieve the strategic plan and manages the National Office staff to support USA operations and the many volunteers that are critical to SMART’s services.
Prior to joining SMART Recovery, Mrs. Alicea served as the Mental Health Ombudsman for NAMI Lake County (OH) and participated in several community coalitions, including having served on Lake County Family and Children First Council for 12 years. Mrs. Alicea has completed an unusually high number of professional training courses—17 in all—including Family-to-Family Facilitation, NAMI Basics, Medical Complications of Addictive Diseases, Mental Health First Aid, Trauma response Team Training, and many more.
Board of Directors
Officers
WILLIAM (BILL) GREER

RON LOTT

THOMAS (TOM) HORVATH

ROBERT MCDONOUGH

RANDOLPH (RANDY) C. LINDEL

Directors
ROXANNE ALLEN

BOBBE BAGGIO PhD

Since 2002, Bobbe has been CEO of Advantage Learning Technologies, Inc. She has held academic positions as the Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Online Learning, Adjunct Faculty, Associate Provost and Graduate Program Director of the MS program in Instructional Technology Management.
Bobbe is an author, public speaker, strategic advisor, educator in instructional technologies and learning, and a learning and talent development consultant for a global and virtually connected workforce. Her expertise draws upon her experience as a Fortune 100 IT manager, 20 years of consulting experience, and her doctoral studies in instructional design for online learning. She believes in designing training based on research in instructional principles and that technologies are here to help everyone and enhance human performance. Her most recent article is AI and the Agile Workforce, published in Workplace Solutions Magazine, 2nd Quarter Ed., 2019.
JOSEPH GERSTEIN

DAN HOSTELER

Before this chapter in his life, Dan served as president of an international change management consulting firm and has resolved thousands of business dilemmas during his 24-year consulting career. With a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management, a Diplomate in Logotherapy (Viktor Frankl), a CADC, and a CODP I, Dan’s passion for lessening the impact of, up to and including the eradication of, harmful and unwanted addictions is unbounded.
DAVID KOSS, JD

An attorney in private practice (and a member of the District of Columbia Bar), David has represented banks, investment companies, builders of affordable housing, and tenant advocates. His work has included securities filings, corporate mergers and acquisitions, and government affairs. More recently, serving as the SMART Recovery Director of Government Relations, he has educated numerous Congress members and their staff about SMART Recovery and our need to launch more meetings to help end the opioid and broader addiction epidemic.
David’s association with SMART Recovery began in 2015 when he became a meeting facilitator. He has served as Regional Coordinator for our Delaware-District of Columbia-Maryland region since 2017. David has led the growth of the SMART Recovery East Coast into a premier annual event bringing together participants, volunteers, professionals, addiction scientists, and public health officials.
David received the Joe Gerstein Award in 2019, recognizing his extensive volunteer work benefiting the SMART Recover community.
WILLIAM (BILL) STEARNS

Emeritus
ELAINE APPEL

BRETT SAARELA

BRETT SAARELA, Board Member Emeritus, has been actively involved with SMART Recovery since 2001. She was a founding member of the NYC Chapter and joined the USA board in 2009, serving as Vice President from 2011-2021. In addition, Ms. Saarela served as a SMART Recovery UK trustee while living in London, and has served as the Vice President of SMART Recovery International since it began in 2019. Professionally, she was a Licensed Clinical Social Work (LCSW) and practiced mental health and addiction treatment with older adults, often serving the home-bound. She earned her BA from Carleton College and Masters of Social Work from Hunter College. Brett 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. Brett was also nominated for the Social Work Image Award in 2012 by the New York Chapter of NASW for her work with SMART Recovery NYC.
Dept. of Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania
Carlo DiClemente, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychology
University of Maryland at Baltimore
Albert Ellis, Ph.D. (1913-2007)
The Albert Ellis Institute
Frederick Glaser, M.D.
Greenville, NC
Nick Heather, Ph.D.
University of Northumbria at Newcastle Centre for Alcohol & Drug Studies
Reid Hester, Ph.D.
Checkup & Choices LLC
Harald Klingemann, Ph.D.
Institute for Social Planning & Social Management (ISS)
University of Applied Sciences Berne
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies
Brown University
Alan Marlatt, Ph.D. (1942-2011)
Addictive Behaviors Research Center,
University of Washington
Barbara McCrady, Ph.D.
Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse & Addictions,
University of New Mexico
Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr., M.D. (1942-2011)
Dept. of Psychiatry, College of Medicine,
Howard University
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies
Brown University
Stanton Peele, Ph.D.
Fellow, The Lindesmith Center
Linda Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP
Nova Southeastern University
Center for Psychological Studies
Mark Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP
Nova Southeastern University
Center for Psychological Studies
William L. White, MA
Chestnut Health System
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