Miller-The ASAM Principles of Addiction Medicine, 7e

Tributes

Bonnie Baird Wilford, MS (1944-2019) An Icon and Paragon Devoted to ASAM, Advancing Addiction Medicine

As a consultant for ASAM for nearly three decades, Mrs. Wilford’s knowledge and leadership were pivotal in helping ASAM to evolve into a mature specialty society. Her work not only raised the awareness of addiction as a medical issue but helped redefine addiction medicine through education and public policy—ultimately assisting ASAM to gain acceptance among the other well-established medical specialty organiza tions. Bonnie Wilford was central in helping ASAM leader ship to understand that connecting medical education and U.S. federal public policy were critical to its mission. With her experience leading addiction-related education and outreach programs with the AMA, developing working relationships with NIH and other federal entities, and performing policy work with SAMSHA and ONDCP, Bonnie was a natural at networking federal policymakers with ASAM and its growing body of educators. Mrs. Wilford’s passion was education. She skillfully worked with ASAM to organize its first Review Course in 1986 and recognized the value the Review Course syllabus had in edu cating physicians in Addiction Medicine. Bonnie persuaded ASAM to compile and publish the syllabus making it available to anyone. This compilation of work later evolved into ASAM’s first textbook: the first edition of the ASAM Principles of Ad diction Medicine (1994). Bonnie led and was the heartbeat for the first four editions of this respected textbook. She served as the Managing Editor for the first four editions of the text book and then worked to personally help identify and recruit its following editors. Bonnie served as the collaborating shep herd for ASAM’s continued growth and influence resulting in publishing landmark books and educational programs and supporting documents, including the 1991, 1996, and 2001 editions of The ASAM Criteria. Her leadership and successes above carried over into the U.S. federal agencies that were be coming interested in and supportive of addiction medicine research and discovery. She was the catalyst for ONCDP to sponsor three White House Conferences on medical education in addiction. Want ing to keep the momentum alive, she worked with leaders of

the White House to form the Coalition on Physician Educa tion in Substance Use Disorders (COPE) in 2002, along with several organizations. COPE’s mission remains today to en sure all physicians are trained to identify, prevent, and provide specialty-appropriate interventions for patients with substance use disorders. A passion for the remainder of her career, Bon nie took on the volunteer role of Executive Director of COPE where she remained until the time of her passing in 2019. We fondly remember Bonnie as kind, approachable, friendly, and inclusive. Bonnie was seen at most every ASAM related educational event—always working her way through the masses to meet new attendees, identifying needed areas of talent in old and new members, and inspiring them to con tribute their time and expertise to help ASAM evolve forward. Many did so on a volunteer basis and with Bonnie mentoring them along the way. Bonnie was warm, passionate, smart, and highly interpersonally skilled. These qualities made her suc cessful in bringing people, organizations, and ideas together toward accepting of addiction as a true medical illness. Bonnie literally planted multiple ASAM pillars of education (medical conferences, textbooks, educational organizations, etc.) that today exponentially bear fruits year-upon-year, serving to motivate and equip clinicians, researchers, and policy mak ers to battle this deadly disease. ASAM is eternally grateful to Bonnie as a pioneer in our field and organization, as many of ASAM’s educational and policy-related accomplishments to day began with Bonnie’s vision and collective efforts over the preceding decades. It is in this spirit that we pay tribute to Bonnie B. Wilford in this seventh edition of this landmark publication. Michael M. Miller, MD, DFASAM, DLFAPA ASAM President, 2007-2009 Louis E. Baxter Sr, MD, DFASAM ASAM President, 2007-2009

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Shannon C. Miller, MD, DFASAM, DLFAPA Sr. Editor, Principles of Addiction Medicine

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