Gail Carol Nelson, Ph.D., is the Associate Director of the Dartmouth Center on Addiction, Recovery and Education, a collaborative effort of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School. She is also a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School.
Dr. Nelson has served in the field of alcohol and addiction medicine for over 27 years in a variety of capacities: as author, professor, research scholar and as Training Fellow for the National Institute for Native Leaders in Higher Education. She has also designed and conducted educational programs and conferences for physicians, educators, administrators and diverse community groups in several regions of the country on topics related to alcohol and other drug use, addiction and recovery, has served as consultant to state health departments and college programs, and as a coordinator of a county council on alcoholism. She was certified by the State of Minnesota as a chemical dependency practitioner and worked with young people in Hazelden Foundation's residential treatment facility. Prior to her work in the field of addiction medicine, Dr. Nelson was a tenured teacher of history, social science and politics. Since 1990, she has been affiliated with Dartmouth College where she helped create and continues to teach an interdisciplinary class for undergraduate and medical students on the dynamics of addiction and recovery within individuals, families and communities. (Alcohol and Addiction Medicine: Symbols and Substance, Psychiatry 606, cross-listed with College Course 3.) This course is taught together with other members of the Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth College Faculty. Also in conjunction with Dartmouth Medical School faculty, she teaches an elective course for medical students on the nature of recovery from addictions to alcohol and other drugs. Her doctoral dissertation on the nature of addiction and recovery was published by Hazelden Foundation in 1989 as the text Alcoholics in Recovery: Spiritual and Cultural Revitalization. A new work is soon to be more widely available: Practicing Peace: A People in Recovery of Freedom.
