Medication Assisted Treatment

Sharon Dow, MS, has more than 40 years of experience in policy development, planning, technical assistance, and direct provision of substance abuse and mental health services, including 22 years writing, interpreting, and managing federal and state grants and contracts. For nearly twenty years, Ms. Dow directed the Opioid Addiction Treatment Improvement Project (OATIP), a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded contract that provided technical assistance to Single State Agencies and opioid addiction treatment programs in the areas of accreditation, policy, regulation development, interagency relationships, and professional development. Prior to that, Ms. Dow served as Chief of the Program and Policy Development Division of Maryland’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration, where she was responsible for policy development and interpretation, regulation development, and methadone treatment issues. Ms. Dow also served as the State’s Methadone Treatment Authority (SMA), currently referred to as the State Opioid Treatment Authority (SOTA), where she received the Nyswander-Dole award from the American Association for the Treatment of Opiate Addiction (AATOD).

Ms. Dow supported the Joint Commission, a SAMHSA approved accrediting body that was at the forefront of SAMHSA’s policy initiative requiring accreditation of all opiate treatment programs. She has also served as reviewer and contributor to several SAMHSA Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIP), including State Methadone Treatment Guidelines, Assessment and Treatment of Cocaine-Abusing Methadone-Maintained Patients, and LAAM in the Treatment of Opiate Addiction. Ms. Dow received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Fisk University and a Master of Science in Psychology from Howard University.