WILLIAM White

Background

White was born in 1947 to an Army family, his father a construction worker and his mother a nurse

Education

University of Notre Dame (Bachelor of Business Administration, 1969). De Paul University (Juris Doctor, 1974).

Career

He received a bachelor"s degree from Eureka College, studying psychology, sociology and history. His first job was with the Illinois Department of Mental Health in 1967, where his responsibilities were to tour the wards of the mental health institution and screen the alcoholics and addicts for community placement. In the seventies, he became an outreach worker, gathering addicts and alcoholics from jail or hospitals and connecting them with services like Salvation Army shelters, Single Room Occupancy’s and Associate of Arts meetings

In 1970, he worked at Chestnut Health Systems, one of the first local community treatment centers in Illinois, and became the clinical director of the facility.

In 1975, White left to pursue a master’s degree in Addiction Studies at Goddard College. Upon graduating he began working with the Illinois Dangerous Drug Commission, and then became deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s training center in Washington District of Columbia. In 1986, he returned to the Chestnut Health System and founded the Lighthouse Institute, an addiction treatment research center.

In 2003, he published his best-known book, Slaying the Dragon, a history of addiction and addiction treatment in the United States. He is now a senior consultant at the Chestnut Health System, and continues to engage in research and writing on addiction treatment and recovery coaching.

Achievements

• WILLIAM White has been listed as a reputable lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell.

Membership

Illinois State and American Bar Associations. [Specialist, 5th Class, United States. Army, 1970-1971]. Matrimonial Law.