Gail C Nelson, Ph.D.
Title(s):
Research Associate in Psychiatry
Emeritus Faculty
Department(s):
Psychiatry
Contact Information:
P.O. Box 103
Weston Vt 05161
Email: Gail.C.Nelson@Dartmouth.EDU
Biography:
Gail Carol Nelson, Ph.D.
Gail Carol Nelson, Ph.D., is Emeritus faculty member and research associate in the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School. She served as a faculty member at Dartmouth for over 21 of her 31 years in the field of addiction, recovery and health. Most recently she was the coordinator of academic offerings in addictive disorders and recovery with the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth. She is the author of a text on revitalization movements within cultures and recovery from alcoholism and other drug dependence within individuals.
As professor, she created and for 20 years led an interdisciplinary, multicultural course for Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School students on the nature and dynamics of addiction and recovery within individuals, families, communities and nations. Drawing upon resources from a public website she created in connection with this class entitled “Alcohol: Symbol and Substance,” Dr. Nelson developed an additional separate website for Dartmouth’s Center on Addiction, Recovery & Education. The center website features an online video library and a small collection of stories of recovery written by Dartmouth students, alumni and associates. Together with Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth College and John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding faculty, Gail helped create a course entitled “Global Perspectives on Alcohol and Substance Abuse” offered in the spring of 2011 and participated in the early development of Dartmouth’s Global Mental Health Initiative, founded by the Dickey Center in partnership with Dartmouth Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Nelson was a founding member and Associate Director of the Dartmouth Center on Addiction, Recovery & Education (DCARE) co-chaired by Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. Joseph O’Donnell. This group was created “to address alcohol, tobacco and other drug use related issues, facilitate the development of needed programs, encourage leadership in helping reduce substance abuse, provide a forum for the sharing of stories, diverse perspectives and enhance conditions supportive of fulfilling lifestyles.” With colleagues from the center, including the center’s original advisory council of over twenty medical school and college faculty, students and alumni, she helped identify, create, link and offer resources, helping bring the multidisciplinary, multicultural and community service strengths of the College together to address these vital issues. As administrator and faculty member, she was a founding member of the C. Everett Koop Scholar in Addiction Studies program and collaborated with other faculty members in the establishment of an outpatient addictive disorder treatment facility at Dartmouth, an annual symposium on substance use related issues and Dartmouth’s University Seminar in Addiction Medicine. In addition, Gail helped create and sustain a regional network of legislators, teachers, school administrators, counselors, law enforcement officials and treatment providers to address issues related to alcohol, tobacco and other substance use. In connection with her work at Dartmouth, she was appointed a Training Fellow for the National Institute for Native Leaders in Higher Education. In her work with Dartmouth’s health service, she helped facilitate therapy and educational groups and served as co-advisor to students in an on-campus residential affinity group created by students in recovery from alcoholism.
Prior to her association with Dartmouth, Gail was a tenured teacher of history and politics. She was also a counselor and teacher with the Hopi in Kykotsmovi, Arizona. She served in multiple roles at Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota, including those of case manager, group facilitator and educator. While at Hazelden she also designed, created curriculum for and conducted programs and conferences for physicians, educators, administrators and other individuals and groups from all parts of the world. Her doctoral dissertation on the nature of addiction, revitalization and recovery was published as ALCOHOLICS IN RECOVERY: SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL REVITALIZATION. It has been available to individuals and organizations throughout the world and served as a text for addiction and recovery training programs, including the clergy training program at Hazelden Foundation. A new work is soon to be more widely available: PRACTICING PEACE: A PEOPLE IN RECOVERY OF FREEDOM.
Selected Publications: |
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Gail Carol (Nelson), Ph.D. ALCOHOLICS IN RECOVERY: SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL REVITALIZATION. Hazelden Foundation |
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