who we are
The major players in the work of this foundation are clinicians with a special interest in and commitment to medical education about addiction.
President
Steven J. Eickelberg, MD, FASAM
Dr. Eickelberg is President of Performax, a psychiatric practice located in Paradise Valley, Arizona. He specializes in addiction psychiatry, sport psychiatry and fitness-for-duty assessment and follow-up of airline pilots. His psychiatric practice focuses upon providing psychotherapy for business, airline and health professionals, professional athletes and their family members. He has worked with Major League Baseball and numerous MLB clubs for the past decade. Dr. Eickelberg has served on the MERF Board of Directors since 1999, The Board of the California Society of Addiction Medicine since 1995, and as the President of the MERF Board since 2002. Dr. Eickelberg is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Board Member
Karen Miotto, MD
Dr. Miotto is a Clinical Professor in the department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is currently the Medical Director of the VA Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center's Substance Abuse Program. She is frequently an invited speaker at the national addiction meetings. In addition, she has published many professional papers and book chapters on substance abuse and pain management for addictive diseases. Her current research is on treatments for Alcohol, Opioid, and Stimulant Addiction. She is the recipient of a career development award from the National Institute on Drug Addiction to study treatment for GHB withdrawal.
Board Member
Garrett O'Connor, MD
Dr. O'Connor is an internationally recognized expert in the clinical assessment of fitness-for-duty in safety sensitive personnel. He has extensive clinical experience in corporate risk and liability arising from workplace addiction, crisis intervention, and disaster response strategies. In this latter capacity, he was the principal expert witness for the plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez trial. Dr. O'Connor is certified in General and Addiction Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and in Addiction Medicine by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Board Member
Kenneth Saffier, MD
Dr. Saffier is a family physician
specializing in addiction and chronic pain management from the Contra
Costa Health Services Department. He works in the U.C.Davis affiliated
family medicine residency program at Contra Costa Regional Medical
Center and Health Centers in Martinez, California. He also is Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Board Member
Max A. Schneider, MD, FASAM
Dr. Schneider is a Diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine, Director of Education at the Positive Achievement Center at Chapman Medical Center, Orange, California, a Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), a Past Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), a past consultant to the Drug and Alcohol Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a former Certified Medical Review Officer. Educated at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, he has been active in the field of Addiction Medicine since 1953 and currently serves as a Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine (Addiction Medicine) at the University of California at Irvine College of Medicine. He has produced ten films and five booklets on addiction; authored over 60 papers and has lectured in 49 states, three Canadian provinces and six countries.
Board Member
Gail N. Shultz, MD
Dr. Shultz retired from being the medical director at the Betty Ford Center in 2001 and now practices part-time in Tucson, Arizona at Cottonwood de Tucson. He is on the Board of Directors of Compass Behavioral Healthcare in Tucson. He is a member of both the California Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Society of Addiction Medicine, having served as a director of both those organizations and as President of CSAM from 1997 to 1999. He is certified in Addiction Medicine and has been on the board of MERF for 8 years.
Board Member
Maureen Strohm, MD
Dr. Strohm is a Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine and the founding Family Medicine Residency Director at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Since 1984, Dr. Strohm has had a career in family medicine education, with a focus on addiction medicine education of medical students and residents. From 1995 to 2009, she served as Residency Director for the USC/California Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, and is now developing a new Family Medicine Residency at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and planning key components of training in collaboration with our colleagues at the Betty Ford Center.