On March 13, 2016, Hugo Barrera reported as the new South Florida HIDTA Director, replacing retired former Director Timothy Wagner. Hugo J. Barrera, retired Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Miami Field Division, returned to his hometown of Miami in July 2008, where he oversaw and directed ATF operations until October 2015 in South Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A native of Cuba, Mr. Barrera received his Bachelor’s Degree from Barry Catholic University, in Miami Shores, Florida. As a veteran law enforcement professional, he became an ATF Special Agent in 1983 after almost 7 years as a City of Miami Police Officer where he served as a Homicide Detective. In 1990, SAC Barrera entered ATF’s management ranks and served in the following positions: From 1990 through 1996, Resident Agent in Charge, Los Angeles Field Division, Houston Field Division (El Paso, Texas) and Boston Field Division (Maine and New Hampshire). From 1996 to 1998 Special Agent Barrera was appointed to the Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations (Internal Affairs) at ATF Headquarters in Washington, DC.
In April of 2000, Special Agent Barrera was appointed as the SAC of the Miami Field Division. He oversaw ATF’s investigative efforts in South Florida with focus on the post 9-11 terrorist attacks. SAC Barrera was appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Director, ATF’s Field Operations (East), in April of 2004 overseeing eight of ATF’s most populated Field Divisions in the U.S., He served as Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information (OSII), from December 2005 until July 2008. He oversaw ATF’s collection, analysis, and utilization of information in the Bureau’s key case investigative database systems at the U.S. Bomb Data Center and International Bomb Data Center, which enhance law enforcement information sharing domestically and internationally.
A member of the Senior Executive Service, SAC Barrera served as a member of the Executive Committees of the South Florida Regional Domestic Security Task Force and of the Anti-Terrorism Task Force. He serves as a member of the Miami Dade County Chief’s Association as well as the Broward County Chief’s Association. He serves on the Firearms Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and is a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians.
Dan Ciccarone, MD, MPH is a board-certified clinician in family medicine and addiction medicine. In his position as Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF he has been principal or co-investigator on numerous NIH-sponsored public health research projects including his current Heroin in Transition study. He is a recognized international scholar on the medical, public health and public policy dimensions of substance use, risk and consequences. His publications have appeared in JAMA, NEJM, AJPH, IJDP and PLoS Medicine among others. He is Associate Editor for the International Journal of Drug Policyand recently edited an IJDP special issue on the “triple wave crisis” of opioids, heroin and fentanyl in the U.S.
Ms. Dmitrovic is an experienced Executive Addiction Specialist with over 34 years in the addiction field. She has extensive experience in raising public awareness and supporting program development for individuals with substance use disorder through advocacy, policy and program development.
Prior to her arrival at SAMHSA, she served as the Executive Director for Foundation for Recovery in Las Vegas, NV, where she developed and implemented peer recovery programs and training on stigma and discrimination related to substance use disorders. Ms. Dmitrovic also held the position of Director of the National Office of Consumer Affairs for Optum Behavioral Health, UnitedHeathcare. There she used her vast experience to develop peer products and tools to support individuals with substance use disorders. As the Chief Operating Officer for the Recovery – Advocacy – Service –Empowerment (RASE) Project in Pennsylvania, Ms. Dmitrovic assisted the CEO and maintained relationships with policy makers, physicians, providers and other community-based programs. During her six years with RASE, Ms. Dmitrovic launched the Buprenorphine Coordinator program serving opioid dependent individuals with recovery support services in medication assisted treatment (MAT) one of the first in the country that received two national awards for innovation.
John Eadie is the Public Health & Prescription Drug Monitoring Program project coordinator for the National Emerging Threat Initiative of the National HIDTA Assistance Center. He previously served as director of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) Center of Excellence at Brandeis University (2010-2015). For 44 years, Eadie has served in management, executive and consulting capacities in the field of public health. As director of the Division of Public Health Protection in the New York State Department of Health (1985-1995), he directed the state’s pharmaceutical diversion program, including the PDMP. He co-founded both the Alliance of States with Prescription Monitoring Programs and the National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities, served as president for both organizations and held other posts. Since leaving New York state service in 2001, Eadie has served as a consultant on PDMPs, including serving as the administrative reviewer for the Massachusetts PDMP.
Douglas J. Edwards, C-ATM, is the director of the HMP Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Learning Network, the behavioral healthcare field’s largest media and event producer. Its signature events include Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit, PsychCongress, National Conference on Addiction Disorders, and Treatment Center Investment & Valuation Retreat. He has been serving the behavioral healthcare community since 2000, and previously served as editor-in-chief of Behavioral Healthcare and Addiction Professional magazines. Edwards has moderated high-level panel discussions at conferences across the country with VIPs such as members of Congress and the White House. He presents on marketing best practices for the field and in 2018 earned the Behavioral Health Association of Providers’ Certificate in Addiction Treatment Marketing (C-ATM). He earned an MBA from Franklin University and his undergraduate degree in English and Sociology from the University of Akron.
Peter Gaumond joined the Office of National Drug Control (ONDCP) in October 2010 as the Chief of the Recovery Branch. He currently serves as a Senior Policy Analyst supporting the National Cocaine Coordination Group (NCCG) and helps coordinate the activities of the NCCG and the ONDCP Public Health, Education, and Treatment Group. In this capacity, Peter provides expertise on a wide range of public health policy and regulatory issues. As Chief of the Recovery Branch, Peter helped frame the federal government’s approach to improving long-term recovery outcomes, assisting in the development of national policy goals and objectives and creating and implementing plans to achieve them. Peter has more than 25 years’ experience in the substance use disorder treatment and recovery field. Prior to joining ONDCP, Mr. Gaumond served as a Senior Associate at Altarum Institute, where he provided technical assistance to states and tribes implementing initiatives funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Access to Recovery Program, and at Abt Associates, where he served as Project Manager for the SAMHSA Partners for Recovery Initiative. Before moving to the Washington, DC area, Peter served as the Administrator of Program Development for the Illinois Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (DASA). In that role, he was charged with improving systems and services, and overseeing a wide range of initiatives, programs and projects budgeted at approximately $30 million annually. He led a team of 10 who applied for and managed federal grants and who implemented and managed innovative projects funded by the state, such as the development of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder treatment networks, compulsive gambling treatment, and cross-system, cross-agency teams to serve homeless people with substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorders. He also represented DASA on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Continuum of Care. Earlier, Mr. Gaumond served an analyst at the Illinois Bureau of the Budget (now the Illinois Office of Management and Budget) , where he was responsible for the budgets of the Department of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, the Department of Aging, and the Guardianship and Advocacy Commission. Before joining the State of Illinois, Mr. Gaumond served as a program director, family educator, and counselor in the addictions treatment field; as an English and French instructor; and, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina-Faso, West Africa, where he taught at the University of Ouagadougou. As a person in long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol, Peter works to raise awareness of addiction and recovery in order to reduce the stigma and misunderstanding that still surround substance use disorder and thereby help remove obstacles that can prevent people with SUD from achieving long-term recovery and fully rejoining and contributing to their communities. Mr. Gaumond holds an MA from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration and a BA in English from Marquette University. He also studied at the Université de Paris V (Académie Rene Descartes) and at the Université de Paris IV (La Sorbonne). He serves on the Executive Committee of the Alumni Board of the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
Rutgers University
Phil McCabe is a Health Educator for Rutgers University, School of Public Health Center for Public Health Workforce Development and the Region II Public Health Training Center providing training on Disaster Response, Resiliency and Preventing Workplace Violence in NY/NJ Washington, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. He is an Adjunct Instructor for Rutger’s School of Nursing, School of Social Work and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as the faculty advisor for the Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) . He serves on the Board of Directors of NALGAP: The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and their Allies, and holds the position of President. He contributed to the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment’s “A Provider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals” as a principal writer on family issues. In 2009, he was selected as a Master Trainer for the SAMHSA/CSAT Addiction Technology Transfer Center Curriculum on LGBT Clients. He was appointed by Governor Murphy to the New Jersey Board of Social Work Examiners and has presented workshops at various local, state, and national events and also in the United Kingdom since 1986.
Jennifer (Jen) Smith was first appointed Secretary of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) in March 2018 and reappointed in April 2019 under Governor Wolf’s second-term. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Secretary for DDAP.
Since assuming the role of Secretary, she has led the department’s focus on strengthening Pennsylvania’s drug and alcohol treatment landscape by increasing drug take-back opportunities, launching Pennsylvania’s Get Help Now Hotline, and expanding access to naloxone in communities around Pennsylvania. Secretary Smith has led collaborations with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to release guidelines and protocols for “warm handoffs” that help overdose survivors transition into substance use disorder treatment, and award Pennsylvania’s Coordinated Medication Assisted Treatment Centers to expand access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to uninsured, underinsured, and privately insured individuals who are suffering from the disease of addiction.
Alongside Governor Wolf and fellow Cabinet Members, Secretary Smith has worked tirelessly to ensure that fighting the opioid crisis remains a priority on the federal, state, and local levels. Under her leadership, the department has secured approximately $108 million in federal grant funding to fight the heroin and opioid epidemic and maintains close collaboration with sister state agencies and local governments to establish innovative, nationally-recognized projects with the funding.
Secretary Smith began her career with the commonwealth in 2004 in the Office of the Budget, beginning as an accountant and eventually becoming the office’s Director of Planning and Management in 2012 before beginning her tenure with DDAP.
She currently resides in Jonestown with her four children. In addition to spending time with her family, she enjoys participating as an active member of her church.