Jeremy Hustead, MD, FASAM
Candidate for Regional Director
Region V - Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia
My name is Jeremy Hustead, MD, FASAM and I serve as an Assistant Professor and Medical Director of the outpatient Addiction Intensive Outpatient Program at West Virginia University Medicine’s Department of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry in Morgantown, West Virginia. Prior to joining the WVU faculty in 2020, I completed 4 years of General Psychiatry training here including serving as Chief Resident. After residency graduation, I served as the first Addiction Psychiatry Fellow in program history and am now involved in training both Addiction Psychiatry and Medicine fellows. Since June 2020, I have served as the state chapter president of the West Virginia Society of Addiction Medicine (WVSAM), a position that I have enjoyed tremendously.
Growing up, I did not come from a traditional medical family but instead grew up in the inner-city to a disabled father who had muscular dystrophy and a mother who had a traumatic brain injury. We lived in a one-bedroom apartment and I started working as soon as possible to supplement our family’s income. Becoming a doctor was largely a pipe-dream but became a reality with much guidance and support from academic mentors who saw potential. My background in no way has held me back but instead has served to help me empathize with my patients and become a more effective healer. It has also led to a profound determination to advocate for those who come from similarly disenfranchised backgrounds. Regardless of where my career takes me, I plan to forever advocate for effective substance use treatment and to reduce the enormous amount of stigma that follows those with the terrible disease of addiction.
Candidate Questionnaire Responses
1. What have been your greatest contributions to ASAM or to the field of addiction medicine over the last 10 years?
My greatest contributions are through my 4-year term as the president of the West Virginia Society of Addiction Medicine (WVSAM), the state chapter of ASAM and my work as an assistant professor at WVU Medicine. Since becoming the chapter president, I have served on ASAM鈥檚 chapter council as an active participant. As part of the chapter council, I have helped craft and implement several policies at ASAM. I have regularly attended the national conferences and brought numerous trainees into the fold.
Beyond my direct ASAM contributions, I have treated thousands of patients throughout West Virginia in various outpatient, inpatient, and residential settings. Our state of West Virginia unfortunately has been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic as evidenced by our consistently highest overdose death rates. I am pleased to say that after a peak during COVID, we are finally seeing reductions in overdoses and I would hope that some of my efforts here in WV have contributed to that improvement.
Whilst I greatly enjoy treating patients directly, I have increasingly relished in the opportunity to train learners and mentor the future generations. Having completed the addiction fellowship here, I have been involved greatly in the training of the future addiction physicians and am set to become the Addiction Medicine fellowship training director at WVU in 2025. After that transition happens, I hope to mold our fellows further in the practice of empathetic, evidence-based addiction treatment.
2. How would your election to the ASAM Board of Directors benefit ASAM and the field of addiction medicine?
I believe that me being elected Region V Director would lead to a substantial advocacy boost for the state chapters in our region and ASAM as whole. Serving as WVSAM chapter president in West Virginia, the state with the most difficult substance use burden, has prepared me well to serve all chapters in our region and the greater ASAM at large. The experiences learned in this state will help shed light on the difficulties experienced in many of the smaller and more rural states that have been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. The chapters in Region V and those in ASAM can expect in me someone who is never afraid to advocate for them at any opportunity.
In the light of the need for effective advocacy, I believe that in our addiction field, and especially those of us who work in mental health specialties, tend to be more passive and will defer to other medical specialties and entities that are typically more assertive. Personally, I strongly believe that being assertive is essential to effective advocacy and I thrive to practice this in all my interactions. With that in mind, I would look make ASAM more assertive in its interactions with all stakeholders, be they in government, in other medical societies, or with the general public. We are the experts in our field, we should and must be the voices of reason that stakeholders know to always turn to.
Ultimately, if given the honor to serve as the Region V director, I will take my experiences from a childhood surrounded by substance use to now serving in academic medicine to further both our state chapters and the greater ASAM. I am hopeful to instill some of my empathy and experience into ASAM to help make it a better, more inclusive, and more effective organization than ever.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve in whatever capacity you deem fit.