Sushma D. Taylor

Dr. Taylor holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration, a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist. When she arrived in Marin County in 1974, she built upon her previous experience in social services by serving as the Director of Marin and Sonoma County's Treatment Alternative to Street Crime (TASC) projects in coordination with each county's mental health department, developing and supervising a unique justice diversion-to-treatment project that was replicated nationally.

In 1981, Dr. Taylor assumed the role of Executive Director of Center Point, Inc, a small private, non-profit drug and alcohol treatment program for men and women in San Rafael. Over the thirty-one years of her remarkable stewardship, Center Point has grown tremendously, responding to the complex needs of those suffering from disenfranchisement in their community. Subsequently, Dr. Taylor has developed a wide array of services throughout California, Oklahoma and Texas.

Center Point participants receive a wide continuum of individualized services. Funded through grants and contracts that she has very successfully pursued, Dr. Taylor has designed each program to advance socially positive changes that sustain abstinence, reduce dependence, crime and anti-social behavior and promote increased self-reliance and civic responsibility. Following their Center Point experience, many men and women have become highly successful in their chosen career, many have obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees and all have learned to help others in the community as they have been helped. Dr. Taylor's vision that individuals and families can reclaim dignity and self-worth is realized everyday.

As a result of her innovative work over the last 35 plus years, Dr. Taylor has long been considered a prominent leader and spokeswoman in the arena of health and social rehabilitation. She has been lauded as one of the foremost authorities in the nation on treatment services for women, having served as a special consultant to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in the development of polices for the treatment of pregnant and postpartum women and their children. She provides consultation, presentations and trainings locally and across the nation and world. Through her work for the U.S. State Department, she has visited many nations to assist governments in establishing substance abuse treatment programs.

Dr. Taylor works closely with local, state and federal agencies and representatives to form policy and new legislation that advance the field of treatment and, in the last five years, services for veterans. She has been a consultant to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the White House, was a member of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's National Advisory Council and has served on innumerable advisory groups for federal and state agencies. Dr. Taylor is currently the President of the Treatment Communities of America, the first woman in the history of the pre-eminent national association to be elected to the position. She also serves as the Co-Chair of the California Perinatal Treatment Network.