William L. White
William L. White is a writer on addiction recovery and policy.
Biography
White was born in 1947 to an Army family, his father a construction worker and his mother a nurse. His family grew quite large with more than 20 adopted, foster, related and siblings living in a small rural home in Illinois.[1] He received a bachelor's degree from Eureka College, studying psychology, sociology and history.[2]
Career
His first job was with the Illinois Department of Mental Health in 1967, where his responsibilities were to tour the wards of the mental health institution and screen the alcoholics and addicts for community placement. In the seventies, he became an outreach worker, gathering addicts and alcoholics from jail or hospitals and connecting them with services like Salvation Army shelters, SRO’s and AA meetings. In 1970, he worked at Chestnut Health Systems, one of the first local community treatment centers in Illinois, and became the clinical director of the facility.
In 1975, White left to pursue a master’s degree in Addiction Studies at Goddard College. Upon graduating he began working with the Illinois Dangerous Drug Commission, and then became deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s training center in Washington DC. In 1986, he returned to the Chestnut Health System and founded the Lighthouse Institute, an addiction treatment research center. In 2003, he published his best-known book, Slaying the Dragon, a history of addiction and addiction treatment in the US. He is now a senior consultant at the Chestnut Health System, and continues to engage in research and writing on addiction treatment and recovery coaching.
Books
- White, William L. Incest in the Organizational Family: The Ecology of Burnout in Closed Systems. Bloomington, Ill: Lighthouse Training Institute, 1986. ISBN 9780938475002
- White, William L., Pathways From the Culture of Addiction to the Culture of Recovery : a Travel Guide for Addiction Professions. 2nd ed Center City, Minn: Hazelden, 1996. ISBN 9780585126258
- White, William L. The Incestuous Workplace Stress and Distress in the Organizational Family. Center City, Minn: Hazelden, 1997. ISBN 9780585305929
- White, William L. Slaying the Dragon, The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. Bloomington IL., The Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse Institute, 1998. ISBN 9780938475071
- Kelly, John F., and William L. White., eds. Addiction Recovery Management Theory, Research and Practice. Totowa, N.J.: Humana, 2011. ISBN 9781603279604
References
External links
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