Board Members
DILLON WEST, LCDC, CCJP, was born in Chicago, Illinois, He moved to Houston Texas in 1984 after living in Texas for 26 years he considers himself a transplant Houstonian. Currently Dillon works as a Clinical Supervisor for an Inpatient Therapeutic Community Treatment Facility in the Criminal Justice system. He is also the program Director for Winner's Circle Peer Network Houston Chapter.
Dillon entered The field of Addiction by Divine Intervention; he was among the first graduates of the Texas Treatment Initiative program endorsed by the late Ann Richards (Governor of Texas), upon graduating he became a member of Winner's Circle Peer Network – a recovery support group. The Winner's Circle Peer Network is designed to assist formerly incarcerated individuals re-entering society. It also serves as a recovery vehicle for the community. One of the Winner's Circle primary focus is mentoring and coaching individuals re-entering from incarceration or treatment. Dillon has been going inside the Criminal Justice System and treatment facilities for 15 years mentoring individuals and provides recovery coaching as a continuum and care. He served as Chairman over the 20 Winners Circle Chapters across Texas for eight years and is involved in the National Winners Community which was modeled after the Winners Circles of Texas.
Providing peer to peer recovery models has been his passion. One of his favorite concepts is "In order to keep it, you must give it away". Dillon also has served as a trainer for the Therapeutic Community model treatment and is currently a Clinical Supervisor; his recovery coach skills currently serve both professionals and non-professionals in the communities.
SANDY OLSON, DrPH, Executive Director, Coalition of Behavioral Health ServicesDr. Olson is a native Houstonian. She is in long-term addiction recovery and active in a 12-step based program. Dr. Olson earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Houston n 1982, and in 1987, a Master of Education with a specialty in Counseling Psychology. In 2005, she completed her doctorate in public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston-School of Public Health, with a specialty in health promotion and behavioral sciences.
Dr. Olson is a Certified Prevention Specialist and a Certified Health Education Specialist.From 1986 to 1993, Dr. Olson worked in various capacities—both in mental health and developmental disabilities services—for the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County, then took a position in the private sector. From 1993 through 2003, she worked for a non-profit organization that provides long-term, comprehensive services and supports to children and adults who have developmental disabilities and related physical and mental health challenges. At the end of 2003, Dr. Olson left to complete her dissertation research and writing.Dr. Olson joined the Board of the Coalition of Behavioral Health Services (CBHS) in the summer of 2006 and, in February, 2008 upon the retirement of the then Executive Director, took on the role of Director. Dr. Olson is involved on behalf of the Coalition in prevention, treatment, and recovery advocacy and initiatives in support of their mission to prevent and reduce the problem and effects of substance abuse and related mental and physical health disorders in the Greater Houston community.Dr. Olson has been following the Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC) movement for about 5 years now, and has been involved from the beginning in the Greater Houston Recovery Initiative that began in April 2010. She was also invited to take part in a national ROSC train-the-trainers conference in August 2010.Sandy Olson, DrPH, CHES, CPSExecutive DirectorThe Coalition of Behavioral Health Services"Connecting Communities"501 Garden Oaks BoulevardHouston, Texas 77018281-630-8665 work cellwww.cbhshouston.orgcbhshouston@yahoo.com 
PAT MALONE. As a business lawyer with a professional career spanning over thirty years in Austin, Texas, Pat has spent the last seven also volunteering as a trained Peer Support Specialist, sharing his recovery from alcoholism/chemical dependencies with co-occurring mental health problems in the hopes of helping others. Pat credits the recent creation of the Recovery Law Institute to the prolific writings of recovery movement author and historian, William “Bill” White, and to the guidance and support he received from the founders of Austin’s local peer support organization, Communities for Recovery, where his volunteerism in the recovery community began.
His recovery journey led Pat to put his expertise in law, business and government to better use by focusing his efforts on identifying systemic solutions for improving rates of recidivism and he aspires to help develop a model suitable for implementation throughout the state of Texas. In addition to working to launch the Austin Recovery Oriented System of Care Initiative, Pat currently serves as a task force member with the DSHS Texas Recovery Initiative and is one of the founding board members of Texas Recovers!, also serving as Board Secretary. Pat invites you to read more about his law practice by visiting www.malonelawaustin.com and more about recovery movement icon William “Bill” White by visiting www.williamwhitepapers.com. In the immortal words of Mr. White – Let’s Go Make Some History!
BEN GRAY BASS, Executive Director, El Paso Alliance, Inc. Ben Bass is the Executive Director of the Recovery Alliance of El Paso. Mr. Bass is in recovery and began at the Alliance as a volunteer. He has been director of the Alliance since May, 2002, and has led the management team in a successful membership drive, organizing and mobilizing the recovery community, community assessments, development and delivery of peer-based recovery support services and financial stability.
Mr. Bass is the administrator of the El Paso Alliance, Inc., a 501 [c] 3 corporation and produces federal reporting on GPRA, financials, quarterly reports and case studies. He is the chief executive of the corporation and is currently operating contracts with the State of Texas to deliver peer recovery support services for drug court offenders and probationers under Access To Recovery, and for the City of El Paso under the Homeless and Housing Services Program. The Alliance serves people with co-occurring disorders for CSAT under the Local ROSC program and develops and delivers peer support services under the Recovery Community Services Program.
The Alliance operates a peer run residential recovery facility that serves individuals exiting a detox hospital or homelessness and guides them into the recovery community through immersion in the culture of recovery.Mr. Bass is a Recovery Advocate in service to people seeking recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. He is the current vice president of the board of the El Paso Coalition for the Homeless; a member of the board of directors of Faces and Voices of Recovery in Washington, DC; is on the Advisory Board of the Gulf Coast Addiction Technology Transfer Center at the University of Texas at Austin; served as the director of the Recovery Coalition of El Paso; on the Social Service Advisory Board for Centro De Salud La Fe; is a current member of the Intergroup Committee of El Paso; served as the president of the board of El Paso Alliance; as a member of the board of the West Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse; El Paso's Mayor's Blue Ribbon Panel To End Chronic Homelessness In 10 Years; and the Texas Department of State Health Service's Texas Recovery Initiative task force member. Mr. Bass has published in 2009 in Family Community Health Journal a paper called Faith Based Programs and Their Influence on Homelessness. Mr. Bass has led the development and execution of a five-point plan for sustainability for the corporation.
He is the sole employee of the board of directors and reports to them on a monthly basis. Prior to becoming director he was a board member. He has experience in advertising, marketing, technology, business planning and consulting and in the operation of a small business. Mr. Bass has lived in El Paso, Texas since 1963. 
ROBERT S. MILES Current Licenses: as of July 1, 2010Board Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor, ADC III # 8441-0989 (Expires 9/30/11) (since September 1989)Advanced Addiction Counselor, AAC # 1838 (Expires 12/01/12) (since November 2000)Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, LCDC #1843 (12/01/12) (since January 1992)Certified Compulsive Gambling Counselor, CCGC #0465-1293 (Expires 5/31/12) (since December 1993)Certified Prevention Specialist CPS #1227-1197 (Expires 11/30/11) (since November 1997)Texas Certified Tarrant County Adult Probation Officer (1992) retired 2000.Degrees:M.A, Counseling – Amberton University May 2002- Garland, TexasB.S. Abilene Christian College May 1961- Abilene, TexasAssociates Degree Pre-Law Arlington State College (now UTA) May 1959- Arlington, TexasArlington High School May 1957- Arlington, TexasHonors:Senator Harold Hughes Legislative Advocate Of The Year (1998-NAADAC Washington D.C.); Alcohol and Drug Counselor on the Year (1994 and 2002-Fort Worth Chapter of TAAP); State of Texas Alcohol and Drug Counselor of the Year (2002-TAAP); 2003 nominee for National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor of the Year (NAADAC); Texas Criminal Justice Adult Division Commendation for Outstanding Educator (1998-Texas Criminal Justice Dept.), Texas Teen Senator Paul Wellstone Legislative Advocate of the Year (2004), Grapevine Valley Treatment Center "Golden Heart Award " (2010), Sierra Tucson "Pillar of the Community" (2010). Professional:Currently:Texas Association Of Addiction Professionals (TAAP) –Legislative Chairman (15 Years) leading and Advocating for funding in Austin and Washington D.C. for funding for Treatment, Education and Prevention. Legislative Chairman for the Fort Worth Chapter of Texas Association Of Addiction Professionals.
Annual Metamorphosis Conference (Addiction Conference) Committee 23 years. State of Texas Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Task Force 4 years. Curriculum advisory Board of Weatherford College -Weatherford, Texas , Tarrant County Community College-Fort Worth and Eastfield College-Dallas, Texas, Texas Youth Advocacy Board of Directors (8 years).Community:Director of the Arlington 4th of July Parade 7 years. (Parade 3rd largest in the USA) on the Board of Directors since 1995.Original member of the Arlington High School Alumni Band 7 years (play clarinet). 
JOE POWELL LCDC, CAS Professional BiographyJoe Powell is a licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a Certified Acudetox Specialist who has treated people with addictions and co-occurring mental illness and substance use problems. He has 17 years of clinical experience, and is in his twentieth year of recovery from addiction and alcoholism. Mr. Powell currently works as Executive Director for the APAA – Association of Persons Affected by Addiction, an organization for individuals and families seeking or in recovery. APAA is funded by SAMHSA/CSAT.Joe Powell started the first African American NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) in Dallas, Southern Sector and is now, active board chairman. NAMI-DCAA serves families with loved ones that have mental illness. He is currently on the national Board of Directors for Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR)., The National Leadership Council (NLC) of Behavioral Health for African Americans, National Alliance of Multi-Ethnic Behavioral Health Association (NAMBHA) and was awarded the Prism Award by Dallas Mental Health Associated in Sept2004. He sat on the Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Report to Congress committee in Washington DC .in 2004 and on the Social Work/Substance Abuse Advisory Board at Eastfield College. He is originally from Harlem N.Y.C., from a family of seven brothers andone sister. Mr. Powell siblings also suffered from addictions; Four siblings have serious mental illness.
He now has been married for 18 years to his wife, Sylvia Kemp-Powell, (Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army) and has two sons, Max (19) and Tery (15).Affiliation, Awards and Certifications:Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, LCDC, since 1991Certified Acudetox Specialist, CAS, since 2000Mental Health Association (MHA) Prism Award 2004Mental Health of America Texas, Board of DirectorsTexas Association of Addiction ProfessionalsNational Alliance on Mental Illness Community Recognition Award (NAMI)Founder and Board Chairman for Dallas/NAMI-DCAA Southern Sector since 1998National Faces & Voices of Recovery, Board of DirectorsNational Alliance for Multi-Ethnic Behavioral Health Association (NAMBHA)National Leadership Council for Behavioral Health for African AmericansTexas Association of Addiction Professionals (TAAP)National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)Recovery Month Planning Partner/SAMHSA/CSAT/APAADallas Katrina Task Force, Cultural Committee ChairpersonAddiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), Gulf Coast – National advisory Board 
Tricia Hanson Sapp
