Doug Leonard, former president and CEO of Columbus Regional Health and the Indiana Hospital Association, will take the reins of Bartholomew County’s Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress beginning July 8.
Leonard will succeed interim executive director Jeff Jones, who will remain on in an advisory capacity during the transition. The ASAP board of directors named Leonard executive director on Wednesday.
“Doug brings vast experience in the health care field, as well as exceptional leadership capabilities, and will be a great asset for many years to come,” said Mark Stewart, president of the ASAP board of directors and United Way of Bartholomew County.
Leonard served as the president and CEO of Columbus Regional Health from 1997 to 2007 after 20 years in various roles at Columbus Regional Hospital. He was named president of the Indiana Hospital Association in 2007 and retired from that role in 2017.
“With ASAP Inc. now established as an ongoing not-for-profit organization, Doug’s leadership experience and commitment to our community makes him a perfect match for this role,” Jones said. “I know that ASAP will be in great hands under Doug.”
Leonard said he started seeing material about ASAP in 2017 and was impressed by its organization and roots.
“It was really a more complete and thoughtful model than I had seen from other parts of the state who were trying to tackle this issue,” Leonard said. “I actually began using the model that Columbus developed as a recommended way for hospitals in the association to go about handling the opioid epidemic.”
When he was approached by Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Jones about Jones’ upcoming departure and the vacancy, Leonard said he knew this was a worthwhile opportunity that had “real importance and real meaning to the city.”
Leonard said his first goal is to learn a lot.
“I have been only an observer from the outside,” Leonard said. “While I think I can learn really quickly, I have not been a part of the group that has put this great structure together.”
One area he hopes to develop is how the city measures success when it comes to true recovery. For example, Leonard said although the number of prescribed opiates has dramatically decreased, he wonders how many of those people who are no longer receiving prescription drugs have turned to heroin, methamphetamine or something else.
“While the prescriptions have dropped, it doesn’t necessarily mean success and solving the addiction problem,” Leonard said.
“If we could get to the point where we talk about lives saved from addiction, families not broken up because of addiction, people not jailed because of addiction — all those would be great, but recovery is the area we need to focus on most. How do you measure the number of people who successfully left the criminal justice system or found their way to treatment?”
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Doug Leonard
Hometown: South Bend, Indiana
Current residency: Columbus
Career: Columbus Regional Health (30 years), Indiana Hospital Association (10 years)
Education: Indiana University Northwest; IUPUI
Family: Laura, wife; daughter, Annie; son, Ben; son-in-law, Jon; daughter-in-law, Mollie
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About ASAP” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
The Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County was launched in April 2017 to develop a community-wide response to the opioid crisis.
The ASAP leadership team was established and Jeff Jones, a retired Cummins Inc. executive, volunteered as ASAP executive director. A group of local health care and criminal justice system executives agreed to a two-year commitment to lead action teams to identify gaps in the substance abuse treatment system and to prioritize and implement solutions.
In October 2017, ASAP announced its strategy to address opioid addiction and substance abuse based on prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery.
To learn more, visit asapbc.org.
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