Statement on Research:

My research trajectory since applying for promotion and tenure in A/Y 2016/17 is both national and international in scope. My June 2018 Fifty/Fifty program at Tate Exchange at Tate Modern served as a catalyst for expanded partnerships in the UK and the United States. My Free Hot Coffee bike project is now part of a network of bikes, including 10 operated by Recovery Connections in the UK, and the placement of 10 additional bikes in Collegiate Recovery Programs across the US.  My song “One Foot in Front of the Other” was premiered by UK Recovery Choirs Unite during my Tate Exchange program, and had its US premiere by the Recovery Ally Choir at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2018.  My Recovery Ally Choir partnered with the RVA Street Singers and performed at multiple concerts, recorded an album, and produced a series of videos about our choirs.  The RVA Street Singers premiered the song nationally at the Kennedy Center Reach Festival in 2019. 

My largest project to date is Recovery in Practice and incorporates my whole suite of Fifty/Fifty projects in a series of symposia at Columbia University, the University of Derby (UK), Teesside University (UK), the Institute for Contemporary at VCU, and the Alano Club of Portland.  Recovery In Practice gathers artists, writers, activists and researchers with lived experience in substance use disorder and recovery to talk about their research and practice in public, in-person dialogue. Recovery in Practice programming creates space for individuals, groups, and communities to have meaningful in-person, public conversations about addiction and recovery and engages with populations affected by addiction, including the formerly incarcerated and those in long term recovery, writers, artists and non-artists alike, and builds lasting connections between local arts and recovery communities.  I launched the Free Book Exchange at the Columbia Recovery in Practice which is a free library bike that shares the work of all of the writers and researchers involved with the symposia to date.

It is very hard for me to draw distinct lines between my research and service, while I consider Recovery in Practice to be clearly within my research trajectory, the public facing programing, workshops, shared meals and community outreach are very much in my service portfolio.  I am a founding member of the Richmond Inclusive Recovery City initiative which was officially launched at Recovery in Practice at VCU in 2025 and is recognized internationally as the first Inclusive Recovery City in North America.  My 2020 Free Narcan Bike project evolved from a single bike that I operated on campus to a program recognized by the Virginia Department of Health as an official Naloxone Only Harm Reduction community partner.