Former White House Drug Policy Director To Keynote Local Event

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the first physician to serve as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will deliver the keynote address at the Reimagining Opioid Abatement Conference on October 22 in Mobile. Gupta, who led federal efforts that achieved the largest reduction in overdose deaths in U.S. history, will deliver “The Opposite of Addiction is Community: Working Together to Stop Opioid Misuse.” The talk will kick off the daylong conference examining innovative approaches to combating the opioid crisis, as well as the underlying issues that lead to opioid use and misuse. Gupta started his medical practice in rural Alabama and later served as faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. In addition to being a board-certified internist, he holds a master’s degree in public health and a global MBA in technology and innovation. He is president of GATC Health, a company using AI for drug discovery and personalized healthcare solutions through genomic data analysis. The Reimagining Opioid Abatement conference will bring together decision-makers and frontline workers to explore community-centered solutions addressing not only opioid misuse, but also underlying factors such as poverty, lack of education and employment and housing instability. Sessions will focus on building stable communities that enable recovery, innovative care delivery, therapeutic justice approaches, prevention, stigma reduction, community coordination and scaling successful solutions.