PRESS RELEASE
Joe Powell receives RecoveryPeople’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award
In recognition of his life’s work promoting recovery, RecoveryPeople is excited to announce Joe Powell as our 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
Joe Powell has been in long-term recovery for thirty-six years. Since 1998, he has been a founding member and President/CEO of APAA in Dallas, TX, which offers peer-to-peer mental health and substance use recovery support. APAA is the first RCO in Texas with National Exemplary Accreditation for Peer Recovery Support Services.
Mr. Powell, a U.S. Army Veteran and licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor for over 30 years, is dedicated to promoting health, wellness, and recovery. He chairs the Peer Committee for the Texas Certification Board and is a founding member of National Faces and Voices of Recovery. He has trained Peer Specialists for UNT and Eastfield College and provides hospital and jail diversion support for North Texas Behavioral Health Authority.
Joe provides recovery-oriented guidance to the Southwest Addiction Technology Transfer Centers Regional Advisory Council (SWATTC) and the African American Center of Excellence. He holds a gubernatorial appointment on the Texas Workforce Commission’s Rehabilitation Council of Texas (RCT) and is a Health Equity Consultant with One World Recovery Network. He is involved with several health equity committees, including NAADAC, Faces and Voices of Recovery, and North Texas Behavioral Health Authority. Mr. Powell leads the Health Equity Collective with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence at Morehouse College.
With over 20 years of experience in criminal justice and recovery-oriented systems, including the MAT/MARS program in Lew Sterrett Jail and 5 specialty courts, Joe leads projects on advancing recovery-oriented systems with the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence and Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center. He is honored to serve as the Historical Educational Consultant for the Online Museum for African American Addiction Treatment and Recovery. Joe is also an alumnus of the Texas Leadership Fellow Academy and Peer Organization Growth Academy.
RecoveryPeople proudly honors Joe Powell for his well-deserved accolade and eagerly anticipates his ongoing contributions to the recovery peer support community.