NIAAA Names 2001 Harold Hughes Award Winner
Ms. Migs Woodside, founder and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York-based Children of Alcoholics Foundation, today was named the third recipient of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's annual Senator Harold Hughes Memorial Award. NIAAA Director Enoch Gordis, M.D., announced the award today in Washington, D.C., at the 2001 Public Policy Conference on Alcohol and Other Drugs.
"Migs Woodside's career exemplifies those attributes that characterized Senator Hughes' career," said Dr. Gordis in announcing the winner. "For three decades she has worked to translate research into practice, build bridges among the various components of the alcohol field, and improve the future for persons with alcohol problems." Ms. Woodside was chosen from a field of clinicians, prevention professionals, and advocates nominated by national, state and local alcohol field organizations.
The Harold Hughes award, named for the Iowa Senator and State Governor also known as the "father of NIAAA," was established in 1998 to recognize a non-researcher who advances the practical application of research in preventing and treating alcohol abuse. The awardee must have demonstrated a commitment to linking the research community with the prevention, treatment, and policymaking communities.
Senator Hughes, himself a recovering alcoholic, was among the first to recognize that progress against alcohol problems must come from research, said Dr. Gordis. "As the force behind the 1970 legislation that created NIAAA, Senator Hughes also was the force behind the genetics, neuroscience, and behavioral research that today is improving alcoholism treatment and prevention, and the economics and policy research that offers proven solutions to alcohol-related social problems."
As major sponsor in 1986 of an international workshop on the search for alcoholism risk genes, Ms. Woodside contributed to initiating the major NIAAA research endeavor today known as the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). Her professional career in alcohol and other drug program administration began in 1969 with New York's Phoenix House Foundation and progressed through positions with the New York City Addiction Services Agency to the position of Assistant Commissioner in 1975 and 1976. From 1977 to 1982, she served as consultant to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, staff consultant to Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Special Counselor on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse to Governor Hugh L. Carey (New York), and executive consultant to the Governor's Conference on Children of Alcoholics.
In 1982, Ms. Woodside established the Children of Alcoholics Foundation, a private foundation to educate and inform professionals and the public about children of alcoholics, alleviate suffering and prevent future alcoholism, and promote and disseminate research. During her 1982-1995 tenure as president and chief executive officer, the foundation highlighted the impact of alcoholism on children and families through conferences, publications, and other outreach activities.
Ms. Woodside served on the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services' National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism from 1994 until 1997 and, subsequently, on a Subcommittee of the Advisory Council to review NIAAA extramural research portfolios. At present, she serves on the Council 's Subcommittee on Research Priorities, the Harvard University School of Public Health's Advisory Council on Child Health, and boards of the Alliance for Children and Families, the Phoenix House Foundation, and the Arizona Foundation for Women.
Ms. Woodside is the recipient of numerous past awards, most recently from the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, South Oaks Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
To request an interview with Ms. Woodside or Dr. Gordis, please telephone NIAAA Press: 301/443-0595. For additional information about alcohol research, visit http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/ or telephone 301/443-3860.