We are so proud to have learned that our own Fr. Ed has recently received the Addiction Professional of the Year Award. Below is the official press release from the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors. Congrats Fr. Ed! We are very grateful that you are part of our Good Shepherd Family!
Dr. Kirk Bowden, of Phoenix, Arizona and President of the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors has announced the 2015 recipient of the Addiction Professional of the Year Award. This year, the award is presented to the Rev. Dr. Edward Reading of Ortley Beach, New Jersey. The award was created by, and is now made in memory of, Mel Schulstad who was the former editor and publisher of The Alcoholism Report.
This award has been given since 1980. The award is given to an addiction professional who is recognized as having made “outstanding and sustained contributions to the advancement of the addiction counseling profession” both locally and nationally. The award will be presented at the Annual Meeting of NAADAC October 9-13 in Washington, DC. He is the first recipient of this award from New Jersey.
Dr. Reading began in the addiction field as a pastoral counseling intern in 1969 at Straight and Narrow, Inc. in Paterson, New Jersey. When he completed his tenure there in 1980, he was the Deputy Director for Treatment Services. He then became the first Director of NJ Prevention, Inc. until 1984, when he was hired as the Assistant Director of the Physicians’ Health Program of the Medical Society of New Jersey. He continues in that same role in the successor agency, The Professionals Assistance Program of New Jersey, in Princeton, NJ.
He has also been a member of the NJ State Board of Marriage and Family Therapy Examiners, where he chairs the Alcohol and Drug Counselor Committee. He has taught at several colleges and universities in New Jersey. He has designed both undergraduate and graduate programs, and currently is the lead faculty member of the Graduate Addiction Studies program at Stockton University. He is also the founder and president of the Matt Talbot Institute for Pastoral and Addiction Studies in Toms River, New Jersey. Dr. Reading has been involved in the education and training of thousands of NJ residents, many of whom now serve as addiction professionals throughout the state.
He has lectured to Addiction Medical Professionals, Clergy and Addiction Counselors throughout the US and Canada. Nationally he is on the Board of Directors, and is a Past President of INCASE (the International Coalition of Addiction Studies Educators) and is a founding Commissioner of the National Addiction Studies Accreditation Commission (NASAC) which accredits colleges and universities through out the US. He has coordinated the steering committee of the newly formed National Association of State Addiction Counselor Licensing Boards. He is a former Board Member of the National Catholic Council on Alcoholism and other Drugs of Abuse. He has also been widely published in professional journals and magazines.
Doctor Reading is also known by the title “Father Reading”, as he is an active priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, NJ. He has been released from service in the diocese to bring his ministry to the secular field of Addictions in NJ, and nationally. Many of his lectures focus on Spiritual Dimensions of Addiction treatment and prevention. He continues to serve in weekend pastoral ministry at Good Shepherd Church in Andover, NJ and at Emmaus House for Women Religious in Ocean Grove, NJ.
Contact NAADAC for further information www.NAADAC.org