National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery
Press Release
Contacts Persons:
Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director, edirector@methadone.org
Carmen Pearman-Arlt, President, carlt@porterstarke.org
Phone/Fax: 1.212.595.NAMA (1-212-595-62620
For Release
July 2, 2018
Recipient of the 2018
Lisa Mojer-Torres Award
America Honors Recovery is Faces & Voices of Recovery's
annual awards gala which celebrates and honors the most influential recovery
community leaders and organizations. The event salutes the legacies of three
dynamic recovery trailblazers who dedicated their lives to removing barriers
for individuals and families affected by addiction.
THE LISA
MOJER-TORRES AWARD
The Lisa Mojer-Torres Award honors a tenacious fighter who
believed in the dignity and rights of every person. Her inquiring and
challenging mind offered new insights and by example, she encouraged us to
stand up and speak out on behalf of all pathways to recovery, including the use
of medications.
Lisa sat on the Board of Directors of NAMA Recovery twice. In
the mid-1990s as a Vice President she helped to reorganize NAMA
Recovery. She left the board to work on the founding of Faces & Voices
of Recovery (FAVOR) and as the first Chair of the organization. Her
determination and advocacy contributed to a significant shift in the recovery
community and the need to end discriminatory policies directed at MAT patients.
After leaving FAVOR she joined the NAMA Recovery Board of
Directors a second time to serve as legal liaison.
Lisa fit her passion and advocacy into an already busy life -
giving of her time and talent while juggling work and family life with her
husband Roland and sons Matthew and Liam. She brought her story of recovery
with compassion to diverse communities and tailored her communications to fit
each audience – be it service providers, researchers, policymakers, family
members or people seeking or in long-term recovery. She was a recovery
communicator – speaking clearly, poignantly and passionately about her own
experiences. She built lasting bridges across the recovery community, “the more
we learn about addiction, the advances of science, the full range of treatments
and the variety of paths leading to recovery, the better prepared we will be to
choose our own path.”
Lisa was everywhere. She was an attorney who specialized in
civil rights law for persons in recovery. Her advocacy activities spanned
television and press interviews, Congressional testimony, policy advisor (from
the Institute of Medicine to CSAT’s National Advisory Committee), one-on-one
lobbying, author, and relentless educator and courageous defender. Lisa died in
2011 after a prolonged struggle with ovarian cancer.
We salute
her tireless, passionate, committed advocacy for recovery.
Walter
Ginter
Walter Ginter is a founding Project Director of the Medication
Assisted Recovery Support (M.A.R.S.) Project. The M.A.R.S. Project is designed
to provide peer recovery support to persons whose recovery from opiate
addiction is assisted by medication. It is collaboration with the Division of
Substance Abuse, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University.
Beyond MARS Training, Mr. Ginter has worked for the last five years training
OTP's, RCO's, and government organizations on how to implement peer recovery
support services for the medication assisted recovery community.
Mr. Ginter, a former Board Director for Faces and Voices of
Recovery (FaVoR), was a Member of the National Policy and Planning Committee,
and the Accreditation sub-committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors
for the National Alliance for Medication Assisted (NAMA) Recov-ery the premier
advocacy and recovery for MAT patients.
Mr. Ginter was a planning partner for National Recovery Month.
Additionally, he has served on several committees of the New York State Office
of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) as a voice for MAT patients.
He has been a member of more than thirty federal expert panels and advisory
groups.
Mr. Ginter received the Richard Lane/Robert Holden Patient
Advocacy Award "in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to MAT
patients and the field of opiate addiction treatment" at the 2009 American
Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) National Conference
in NYC, the Vernon Johnson America Honors Recovery Award from FAVOR and the
Robert Savage Advocate of the Year from the Connecticut Committee for Addiction
Recovery Award (CCAR).
Congratulations,
Walter, for your commitment and dedication
to making
MAT treatment better for patients.
We at NAMA
Recovery are so proud.
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