Recovery Ecosystems Conference highlights transdisciplinary approach to addiction recovery

Community leaders, researchers, health providers, and recovery advocates gathered at The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center for the second Recovery Ecosystems Conference, sharing strategies and strengthening partnerships to address substance use disorder across Southwest Virginia and beyond.

The two-day event — hosted by Virginia Tech, Roanoke Valley Collective Response, and regional partners — highlighted how collaboration across treatment providers, peer recovery programs, employers, public safety agencies, and researchers can help people move toward long-term recovery.

During a keynote conversation, “Dopesick” author Beth Macy and physician and recovery advocate Stephen Loyd — who inspired the character played by Michael Keaton in the Hulu adaptation of “Dopesick” — underscored a theme repeated throughout the conference: Recovery doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and it doesn’t happen alone.

Loyd illustrated that idea with a story from his work treating addiction.

Years after helping a woman through treatment, he received a phone call from her with an unexpected request.

“She said, ‘I don’t really have any family,’” Loyd recalled. “She said, ‘Would you walk me down the aisle?’”

Moments like that, he told the audience, are reminders that recovery is built on relationships that help people rebuild their lives.

“The answer is always community,” Macy said.

Working together across the region

Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb highlighted the collaborative work already underway across the region to address substance use disorder and create pathways to recovery, adding that progress depends on communities working together to support people and reduce stigma.

“When communities bring partners together and commit to the work, it can become a model for others,” he said.

The conference itself demonstrated how that collaboration takes shape locally. The Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, part of Outreach and International Affairs, convened partners from across the commonwealth and beyond, creating a forum where researchers, practitioners, and community leaders could exchange ideas and build relationships that support recovery efforts long after the conference.

“The real power of gatherings like this is the relationships that form across sectors,” said Scott Weimer, executive director of Virginia Tech Roanoke Regional Initiatives. “The Roanoke Center helps accelerate those conversations and support the collaborations that grow from them.”

Bailey Medeiros, director of Roanoke Valley Collective Response, said the conference reflects the region’s shared commitment to building those partnerships.

“Watching the conference grow this year and seeing so many people come together around recovery is powerful,” Medeiros said. “When peers, providers, researchers, and community leaders gather like this, we strengthen the work that makes recovery possible in our communities.”

Connecting research with community

Virginia Tech researchers from multiple disciplines — including the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, the Institute for Policy and Governance, and the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech — highlighted research and community engagement efforts supporting recovery across the region.

Mary Beth Dunkenburger of the Institute for Policy and Governance presented findings from regional asset-mapping efforts that track services supporting recovery across Southwest Virginia. The first mapping effort in 2018 identified about 183 recovery-related resources in the region. A more recent update found over 600 assets — more than tripling the number of identified programs and services.

Scientists from the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s Addiction Recovery Research Center also shared findings and emphasized the importance of engaging communities throughout the research process.

“Research doesn’t happen in isolation,” said Hal Irvin, associate vice president for health sciences and technology outreach at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. “It requires engagement with participants and with the community. One of the reasons our researchers are here is to build those bridges and make sure the work we’re doing connects with the people and partnerships that make recovery possible.”

Irvin added that convenings like the Recovery Ecosystems Conference reflect Virginia Tech’s broader role in bringing partners together around complex challenges.

“As a land-grant institution, we have the people, the facilities, and the ability to bring partners together around issues that matter to communities across the state,” he said.

For researcher Rafaela Fontes, sharing findings with practitioners is an essential part of the work.

“There’s no point in doing research if it never reaches the real world,” Fontes said. “Sharing this work with people who are on the front lines of treatment and recovery is how we begin to turn research into something that can actually impact lives.”

Peers offer essential connection

Speakers throughout the conference emphasized the importance of peer recovery specialists — individuals who bring lived experience with addiction and recovery into treatment settings.

By combining professional training with lived experience, peers help ensure services remain recovery-oriented while building trust with people in ways traditional systems sometimes cannot.

“Peers are like scar tissue. They are extra tough,” Macy said. “They can do the work that somebody else can’t.”

A simple idea echoed across sessions: Recovery depends on communities willing to work together to support people rebuilding their lives.

As Janine Underwood, executive director of the Bradley Free Clinic and chair of the Roanoke Valley Collective Response advisory committee, told the audience:

“It takes a village, and this is that village.”

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