Dr. Kitty Harris Wilkes serves as President of NLW Partners, which is dedicated to consulting, education, science and research for addiction recovery. She is a noted author and public speaker, and presents at national conferences, workshops and seminars on topics including adolescence; collegiate addiction and recovery; and communication, civility and leadership.

She served for twelve years as the Director of the Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery (CSAR) at Texas Tech University. Under her leadership, the CSAR gained national attention, appearing in the Wall Street Journal, on the NBC Today Show, CNN, and featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and The New York Times. Dr. Harris is the author of Women and Recovery-Finding Hope, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and co-editor of Substance Abuse Recovery in College, published by Springer.

Jared P. Dempsey, Ph.D. serves as Chief Scientist at NLW Partners. Dr. Dempsey is actively involved in neurological and physiological research in addiction. Recent publications include preliminary evidence for a biological marker of addiction recovery, non-conscious emotional response to drug stimuli, and the influence of social anxiety on addiction treatment.

Dr. Dempsey has also served as an expert reviewer for the Journal of Motivation and Emotion, Psychopharmacology, Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, American Journal on Addictions, Addiction, Psychiatry Research, European Psychiatry, Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Dr. Dempsey was also actively involved in the development of a comprehensive symptom tracking and outcome data collection tool for addiction treatment, Trac9.