Recovery TV & Radio Advocate Named to Addiction Leadership Institute

(March 28, 2005) -- Recovery television and radio pioneer Robyn Leary has been
selected to participate in the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network’s
Leadership Institute, which the organization describes as “a unique group of addiction
professionals nominated as future leaders in the field.”

The ATTC Network created the Leadership Institute to fill a growing need for new
blood in the administrative ranks of the addiction service field and for “thoughtfully
developed, comprehensive training built upon research-grounded competencies and the
latest adult learning theory, unifying science and education.” Ms. Leary (and others like
her) was nominated and screened through a selection committee process and has been
chosen to receive that training and to fill that need.

Ms. Leary, president of the Recovery Network Foundation and creator and executive
producer of the Recovery Channel, is being mentored in her work at the institute by
renowned historian William L. White, senior researcher at Chestnut Health Systems and
author of the seminal work, “Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment
and Recovery in America.”

The institute’s six-month leadership preparation program, including traditional
training seminars and field work, begins April 4 with a five-day immersion training
session at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

As an important component of the program, each participant is required to complete
a leadership project with input from the mentor. Ms. Leary’s project will be to write and
produce a shooting script for a 90-minute television documentary about the history of the
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), the oldest recovery
advocacy organization in the nation, founded 60 years ago by the trailblazing Marty
Mann, the first woman to achieve sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

The Recovery Network Foundation's, focus is to create recovery-dedicated
programming for the Recovery Channel, a 24/7 cable and satellite venue showcasing
urgent topics relevant to the science of alcohol and other addictions and raising the
national consciousness of the New American Recovery Movement's efforts to eliminate
discrimination and stigma and promote legislation beneficial to the recovery population
their families and allies. For the last year, Ms. Leary, who is based in New York, has
guided production of the first four one-hour pilots for the channel and concentrated on
winning national syndication for the one-hour talk show, Recovery Talk, and a two-hour
TV magazine. She is also producer and host of Recovery Talk-Radio on WDFH-FM in
New York's lower Hudson Valley.

“I look forward to working on the ATTC project with Robyn,” said Mr. White of his
protegee. "Her energy and skills are especially suited to it. There’s been no visual media
on the history of the National Council and very little reliable media on alcohol and other
drug addictions period. Responsible journalism is much needed here.”

“I am a great admirer of Robyn Leary and her passionate commitment to the recovery
field,” said NCADD President Stacia Murphy. “She is dedicated and indefatigable and,
because of her abilities, her documentary project has my blessings.”

“Leary has the skill to move this project from vision to reality,” said John deMiranda,
executive director of the National Association on Alcohol, Drugs and Disability and
ATTC board member. “A veteran journalist, accomplished entrepreneur, independent
video producer and deal-broker, she has been effective in building coalitions for the
launch of the Recovery Channel, which will be helpful in this enterprise as well.”

At the conclusion of her immersion training at the ATTC, Ms. Leary will meet with
Dr. David C. Lewis, founder of the Alcohol and Addiction Studies Center at Brown, (and
NCADD board president). Dr. Lewis will introduce Ms. Leary to the university’s R.H.
Smith Alcoholics Anonymous Archives. R.H. Smith (known in recovery history as “Dr.
Bob”) founded AA with Bill Wilson (known as “Bill W.”) in 1935.