Lauryn comes to the recovery advocacy movement from an extensive professional background in health and managed care focused on national program start-up and large-scale healthcare reform transformation initiatives. She is the mother of three adult children; the youngest of whom is a person in long-term recovery.

Her passion to contribute in meaningful ways to drive systemic change began with the intersect of substance use disorder to her own family. Encountering countless unnecessary and unacceptable challenges within an operating system she’d spent the majority of her professional life working within was not only unanticipated, it was jarring. Particularly from a family member perspective. Few elements of the process, in terms of quality, evidence informed service, or consumer experience resembled standard expectations aligned to other serious medical illness. Since then, she has been voluntarily immersed in various efforts aimed at its transformation.

She has presented congressional testimony on Capitol Hill, participated in a US Senate roundtable, celebrated the 25th National Recovery Month at the White House, served as a panelist on the publisher’s book release press conference for Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, and recently spoke of her family’s experience to the Federal Organized Crime Task Force. In 2017, Lauryn was a parent and family advocate honoree at the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids annual Winter Wish Gala, where she and her son were interviewed on-stage by the event emcee, Elizabeth Vargas.

Nationally, Lauryn serves on Faces and Voices of Recovery’s Public Policy and Program and Outreach Committees. At the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, now merged with the Center on Addiction, she is a devoted parent partner, having served on its legacy Parent Advisory Board and as a founding member of its national CRAFT|ACT|MI-based peer parent coach program, trained by the clinical experts at the Center for Motivation and Change. Lauryn also served on the ADDICTIONary™ Project, a collaborative effort to develop a universal and centralized solution of non-stigmatic, best-use language of substance use led by Facing Addiction in partnership with the Recovery Research Institute. She is a SAMHSA National Recovery Month Planning Partner and a member of its Bringing Science to Care workgroup, and an appointed member of the American Psychiatric Association Consumer/Family Panel for its CMS MHSUD Quality Measure Development project in partnership with the National Committee on Quality Assurance.

In Pennsylvania, Lauryn is a 2010 appointed member and Chair of the Parent Panel Advisory Council under the Commonwealth’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and a member of the Coalition for the CommonHealth Family and Consumer Task Force, a stakeholder forum convened in 2018 to put forth recommendations for improvement to Pennsylvania’s mental health and substance use public health systems. She is also Secretary on the Board of Directors for Pennsylvania’s statewide recovery organization, PRO-A.

Email:

ljwicks@comcast.net