Mark Gold, Groundbreaking Researcher and Pioneer of Medication Assisted Recovery, Joins Board of Directors at Spero Health

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Spero Health, a CARF-accredited community-based organization and national leader specializing in outpatient addiction treatment of substance use disorders, has announced that Dr. Mark Gold has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Founded in response to the growing drug epidemic, Spero Health operates more than 30 freestanding outpatient clinics located throughout Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee, providing care for more than 6,300 patients each month.

Dr. Gold has a proven, distinguished and awarded background in the field of addiction medicine, public health, neurology, and psychiatry. He was the Chairman of Psychiatry, Professor, founding member of the McKnight Brain Institute, and the founder of the Division of Addiction Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine where he spent 25 years. He has published over 1,000 peer reviewed scientific articles, textbooks and practice guidelines widely cited within the medical community, with ground-breaking original work focusing on opioid systems, cocaine, dopamine, addiction and novel treatment pathways including recent work on algorithms for medication assisted therapies in opioid use disorders. Dr. Gold is the recipient of numerous lifetime achievement awards crediting him for his body of work in research which helped to prove that addiction is a brain disease. Known as one of the fathers of medication assisted recovery, Dr Gold has been a teacher and mentor to many of the current leaders in Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry, and behavioral health research. He has helped to develop ASAM Fellowships at Tulane (Louisiana), Medical College of Georgia, University of Florida and trained hundreds of addiction professionals. He is a Professor (Adjunct) of Psychiatry at Washington University in St Louis and Director of Research & Education for the DEA Educational Foundation.

“On behalf of Spero Health and the Board of Directors, I am pleased to welcome Dr. Gold to the Board,” stated Steve Priest, Chief Executive Officer and board member of Spero Health. “Mark has an impressive background as a researcher, author and inventor with numerous discoveries to advance addiction medicine going back to the opioid epidemic in the 1970s. More importantly, he is committed to our mission of Saving Lives, Instilling Hope and Restoring Relationships.”

Speaking about Spero Heath, Dr. Gold added. “Spero Health is an innovator and leader in bringing comprehensive community-based addiction treatment to areas in our country hardest hit by the drug epidemic. By providing a local and affordable option for addiction treatment, this organization transforms opportunities for so many in need, and I look forward to working with the team at this critical time in the organizations evolution.”