Richard Rawson, PhD, professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Collaboration, Dissemination, and Education Core at the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, and senior advisor, best practices core at the University of Vermont Center on Rural Addiction was notified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) that he was chosen to receive the ASAM Presidential Award.
In January, Richard Rawson, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Collaboration, Dissemination, and Education Core at the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, and senior advisor, best practices core at the University of Vermont Center on Rural Addiction was notified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) that he was chosen to receive the ASAM Presidential Award.
The ASAM Presidential Award honors an individual for outstanding dedication and service in addressing addiction issues or promoting education, training, or awareness of the specialty of addiction medicine. Throughout his career, Dr. Rawson has conducted numerous clinical trials on pharmacological and psychosocial/behavioral addiction treatments for the treatment of individuals with cocaine and methamphetamine disorders. He has expanded his outreach and trainings into the field of opioid use disorder in combination with his knowledge of cocaine and methamphetamines and continues to give lectures, presentations, and training sessions, and workshops nationally and internationally. He has represented the US at numerous international meetings and has led addiction research and training projects for the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. State Department, exporting science-based knowledge to many parts of the world. Dr. Rawson was also instrumental in the latest effort to help California pass the first statewide pilot program to win federal approval to cover the contingency management approach to address stimulant use through Medicaid.
When asked about the award, Dr. Rawson reflected and shared the following statement, “I am very honored to be given this award by ASAM, especially an award presented by the current ASAM President, Bill Haning, my friend and colleague of over 30 years. ASAM members have led the implementation buprenorphine treatment for people with opioid use disorder over the past two decades. This effort has and continues to save thousands of lives and improve the lives of hundreds of thousands. It is my hope that as we attempt to meet the treatment needs of those currently caught up in the fourth wave of this 21st-century addiction epidemic, the members of ASAM will provide their valuable leadership and support for contingency management as the approach with the most robust evidence for the treatment of individuals with stimulant use disorder. Thank you for this wonderful award.”
Past recipients of the ASAM Presidential Award include Mark Publicker, MD and Nora D. Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Dr. Rawson, also a professor emeritus at the UCLA department of psychiatry, received his Ph.D. from the University of Vermont in 1974. He will accept the ASAM Presidential Award at the ASAM 53rd Annual Conference this spring.