Come and Join Us!
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
11:00AM-1:00PM
at the
Austin Country Club
4408 Long Champ Drive, Austin, TX 78746
Event will be ASL Interpreted
2025 Keynote Speaker
Dr. Lucas Hill, PharmD, FCCP
Visiting Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy
University of Pittsburg
Dr. Hill is devoted to addressing substance use challenges through community engaged research and innovative educational programs. He serves as Director of the Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU), a team of more than 40 research staff with expertise in implementation science, data analysis, and professional education.
Dr. Hill graduated from the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Pharmacy, completed a family medicine pharmacy residency at UPMC St. Margaret, and completed a faculty development fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He founded the PhARM Program at The University of Texas at Austin and led several Texas Targeted Opioid Response projects focused on health professional education and community overdose prevention.
Dr. Hill's current research focuses on identifying, exploring, and addressing gaps in pharmacy implementation of evidence-based substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction strategies. He serves on the board of directors of the Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance Use and Addiction (AMERSA) and the editorial board of the Journal of the American College ofPharmacy(JACCP).
2025 Mac McLester Award
Donald C. Ellerbe
Donald C. Ellerbe has 25 years of professional experience in the addiction field, as well as 26 years of Lived experience as a person in long-term recovery from addiction. He is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 12-Hr Texas Drug and Alcohol Awareness Class (DWI) instructor. He worked in residential and intensive outpatient treatment at Austin Recovery for over 12 years. He has worked in intensive outpatient, medication-assisted treatment, post overdose outreach and harm reduction with Bluebonnet Trails (BBT-OSAR) for the past 5 years.
He has come full circle, as he too came through BBT-OSAR in April 18th of 1999 as a SUD client. Shortly after that (as result of a resentment), Don started a peer mentoring program called Bruised Apples Mentoring Program in 2000. BAMP was established as a 501(c)(3) in 2003 & has had hundreds of volunteers along the way. He has passion for and has found purpose in helping others find their own way out of addiction by being of service to others.
Don loves being active in the recovery community and his hobbies are hunting, fishing, dancing, playing pool & attending 12-step meetings, conferences & spiritual campouts.
Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker
Heart of Recovery
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
Charles Thibodeaux, LCDC, BAAS
Charles Thibodeaux, LCDC, BAAS, has been a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) since 1992 and has worked in the substance abuse field for over 30 years. During that time, he worked in residential treatment settings for adults as well as adolescents. He worked at a community based MHMR where he supervised an HIV prevention street outreach program for 12 years which followed a harm reduction philosophy whose target population was active IV drug users and sex industry workers. He worked for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) in HIV and Substance Use Disorder field for 10 years. He is one of the pioneers who helped get the first underground syringe service program started in Texas. He has also presented on harm reduction topics including overdose awareness and prevention for several years at the DSHS State sponsored Conferences.
As co-founder of Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative (TONI) since 2014, he has conducted trainings on Opioid Overdose Prevention throughout the state of Texas. He has worked as a Patient Navigator/Consultant with Linkage to Care for Hepatitis C getting individuals tested, treated, and cured. He is also co-founder of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (THRA) which helps locate individuals with opioid use disorder and connecting them to harm reduction services including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Today he continues to distribute Narcan to those in need.
Mark Kinzly
Mark Kinzly worked in the field of Harm Reduction and Public Health for 30 years bringing innovative prevention/interventions to the drug using and recovery community. He was a national trainer and consultant on the issues of substance abuse ranging from HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C interventions to the development of appropriate responses to the complexities of addiction including housing and syringe exchange and overdose prevention. He was peer Recovery Coach and a patient navigator for individuals in the medical care system.
Mr. Kinzly worked as a Research Associate at Yale University ’s School of Medicine/Public Health and was the Coordinator and Project Manager of a number of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded studies Mr. Kinzly initiated and ran Needle Exchange programs in many states, and was part of the New Haven needle exchange, the first legal needle exchange on the East Coast, in its early years. He worked and conducted trainings for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, a national organization that develops supportive housing for persons with histories of either addiction or mental health. He served on the Board of Directors for the National Harm Reduction Coalition, serving also as trainer and expert on the advisory boards for the North American Syringe Exchange Network.
Mr. Kinzly was co-founder of the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative (TONI) that brought overdose awareness and trainings to the state of Texas. He trained people in all areas of overdose prevention and education including law enforcement, active drug users, family/friends of persons on opioids, Medicated Assisted Recovery clinics and educational institutions. He had the honor of being a member of the curriculum development team for Overdose Prevention/Education for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He also served on the Community Advisory Committee and Executive Committee at Yale’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.
Most importantly, he was the proud father of Chase Michael Robert Kinzly and Jada Clay.
Mark Kinzly passed away on July 9, 2022 at the age of 61 years.
