The Distinguished Faculty Award in Service was presented to Dr. Dorothy “Dottie” Greene, whose life has been dedicated to serving those suffering from addiction-related challenges. This associate professor in the ETSU Department of Social Work led the effort to establish the Johnson City Recovery Center (JCRC), the first recovery community center in Northeast Tennessee.
As the JCRC’s executive director, Greene leads a team of certified peer recovery support specialists who identify as people in recovery. She calls the JCRC a “recovery hub” for individuals in recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) that bridges the gap between professional treatment services and recovery housing. It offers one-on-one recovery coaching, groups focused on a variety of recovery-related topics, a computer lab, telephone recovery support services and more.
“Helping people in recovery is no doubt my purpose for being on the planet at this point in time,” Greene said. “It provides me a deep sense of purpose and meaning. The best way to describe recovery is like watching a miracle happen in real time. We see people come in here with nothing but the shirt on their back who develop into happy, healthy, productive, caring members of society.”
“Dottie has provided me with an opportunity that has no price tag,” wrote one individual whose life has been changed by Greene’s work. “I have a safe place to study, to meet with other people like me, enjoy their company, learn about myself, learn about addiction, and heal. Dr. Greene has provided me an environment where I can flourish and do the growing I missed my first time around in this life.”
In addition to her work with the JCRC, Greene developed and implemented ETSU’s graduate certificate program in clinical addiction studies, which has graduated 65 students who have gone on to become addiction counselors and clinical social workers.
Greene, who holds a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Utah, also recently completed a three-year term on the board of directors of the National Association of Social Workers.
“Sharing her personal journey of recovery, she is a beacon of hope to many and works tirelessly to uplift and support those suffering from SUD,” Greene’s nomination states.
A supporter of her nomination wrote: “Dr. Greene’s service impacts the lives of students, practitioners and residents in our region and beyond, but her most impactful service contribution is modeling to all she encounters that all humans should be treated with dignity and respect.”
“Her overriding message,” wrote another supporter, “is one of a belief in the resilient nature of humankind and the ability to regain their lives even in the most difficult situations.”
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Video Transcript
Dr. Dottie Greene:
Johnson City Recovery Center is a recovery community center, and it is the first in the Tri-Cities area of Northeast Tennessee. It's based on the conceptual model from Harvard's Recovery Research Institute, and the best way to describe us is that we are a recovery hub. We offer mutual-aid recovery support groups. We offer recovery-related health and education groups. Everybody that works here, we're all certified peer recovery support specialists. We're kind of founded on this idea of people with lived experience being super-helpful in the recovery process because we've all been there, done that. We opened January third of this year, officially, and we have already seen well over 3,000 people in and out of our groups. Five years from now, I hope that we have made recovery accessible and available to everybody that wants it. But mainly, I hope that we have a significant impact on the overdose mortality rate in our area. I think that it is no doubt my purpose for being on the planet at this point in time. The best way to describe recovery, for me, is like watching a miracle happening in real time. You know, we see people come in here with nothing but the shirt on their back sometimes develop into happy, healthy, productive, caring members of society. It's, it's really quite beautiful.