Dr. Dean Stueland Addiction Treatment & Recovery Symposium

Session Description:
This breakout session explores the scope, risks, and clinical implications of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medication misuse and abuse. Participants will examine commonly misused medications, the physiological effects and dangers of misuse, the risks of combining controlled substances, and the pharmacological properties of gabapentin that may contribute to its misuse. The session will also address naloxone (Narcan®) access and practical considerations for patients and caregivers, as well as the role of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) in identifying and preventing prescription medication misuse and diversion.

Presenters: Kevin Stueland
Kevin Stueland is a licensed pharmacist in the state of Wisconsin practicing in central Wisconsin. Education includes graduating from University of Wisconsin – Madison with a degree in Doctor of Pharmacy, with 17 years of experience across ambulatory, specialty and acute settings.

Session Description:
The presentation will look at the differences between rapid urine drug screening cups and laboratory-based toxicology testing, including the advantages, limitations and appropriate applications of each approach. We will examine how false-positive and false-negative results can occur and discuss factors that may affect the accuracy and interpretation of urine drug screens.

The presentation will also address specimen validity and potential methods of test tampering, including how laboratories can identify compromised specimens and help ensure reliable results. Finally, we will explore the evolving landscape of toxicology testing, including whether laboratories currently test for emerging substances such as xylazine and medetomidine.

Presenter: Cassidy LeMay, Sanford Labs
Cassidy LeMay is a Medical Technologist with 19.5 years of experience in the Special Chemistry laboratory with a primary focus on toxicology testing, drug screening and confirmatory testing. Throughout her career, Cassidy has developed a strong interest in the role of laboratory testing in supporting addiction treatment, recovery and patient care.

Outside of the laboratory, Cassidy is a proud mom of three who enjoys photography, spending time with her family, and enjoying the outdoors.

Session Description:
The Wisconsin Deflection Initiative (WDI) is the only state-led law enforcement deflection initiative in the country, operated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice (WI DOJ) Bureau of Justice Programs. WDI provides a coordinated statewide framework that enables law enforcement officers to connect individuals in crisis — those with substance use disorders, mental health challenges, and co-occurring conditions — to treatment and community services before, during, or instead of criminal justice processing. The initiative is grounded in a problem-oriented policing approach that recognizes behavioral health conditions as a public health challenge requiring a public health response.

Presenter: Bradley C. Kelly, Criminal Justice Specialist, Wisconsin Department of Justice
Bradley Kelly is a Criminal Justice Specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Programs, with more than 20 years of experience in criminal justice and behavioral health. He created and leads the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative (WDI), developing the WDI Essential Elements framework and Deflection Performance Measures in partnership with stakeholders across the state. He also manages a portfolio of federal grants, including COSSUP, RSAT, and JAG, and led the expansion of jail-based medication-assisted treatment through Wisconsin's RSAT program.

Before joining DOJ, Bradley spent 14 years as a Probation/Parole Agent Senior with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, including serving as an embedded jail liaison in Dane County. That frontline experience with people facing substance use and mental health challenges shapes his work today: building practical, evidence-based alternatives to traditional enforcement and helping law enforcement agencies and community partners put effective deflection strategies into practice.

Session Description:
Federal law generally stops Medicaid from paying for health care for people while they are in a correctional facility like a jail or prison. For people with chronic health conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or asthma, there can often be a gap in their treatment and prescriptions, which could potentially result in an emergency department or hospital visit. The same is true for people undergoing treatment for a substance use disorder. A gap in their treatment could result in an avoidable relapse or overdose.

Wisconsin is asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for a new waiver that would change this by providing coverage for certain services up to 90 days before a person is released, as long as they qualify for Medicaid.

Presenter: Bonnie MacRitchie
Bonnie MacRitchie is the Opioid Initiatives Director for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections with over 22 years’ experience improving systems and developing stakeholder relationships in state and local government, the justice system, and non-profit organizations across the state of Wisconsin. Bonnie has been working with a team to increase access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) for individuals incarcerated in DOC facilities and recovery support resources for clients under the supervision of the Division of Community Corrections.

Presenter: Pam Lano, Section Manager - Behavioral Health Policy Section, Bureau of Benefits Policy, Division of Medicaid Services, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Pam Lano is the Behavioral Health coverage policy section manager for Wisconsin Medicaid. She leads a team of policy analysts who develop and support the full array of Medicaid mental health and substance use benefits. Pam holds a doctorate in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a focus on lifespan development, psychological well-being, and personality.

Presenter: Nicholas DiMeo
Nicholas Di Meo, MPH, is a health policy initiatives advisor in the Administrator’s Office of the Wisconsin Medicaid Program. Nicholas leads initiatives that cross functional areas within the Medicaid program and initiatives that involve significant interaction with stakeholders and partners. His areas of interest include population health, quality improvement, and evaluation. Prior to joining the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in 2017, he spent 10 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he led the first agency-wide initiative to establish formal collaboration between public health and Medicaid at the federal and state levels.

Session Description:
This trauma-informed training is built for law enforcement, correctional, and jail professionals. It names the real occupational and personal toll of this work — compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary trauma — and connects it to what you may already carry from before the badge. You'll leave with practical, body-based strategies you can use on shift and at home.

Presenter: Scott Webb
Scott Webb brings 39 years of experience in behavioral health to this training, spanning clinical, consultative, and administrative roles across the field. Most recently, he served as the Trauma-Informed Care Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, a role in which he trained more than 23,000 clinicians across the state over a ten-year period on trauma-informed approaches to care. Scott retired from this position in 2024, closing out a nearly four-decade career devoted to understanding how trauma shapes individuals, systems, and the professionals who work within them.

Scott holds a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and a Master of Science in Education (Counseling), both from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh — a combination that bridges a deep understanding of the justice and corrections system with clinical expertise in trauma and human behavior. This dual perspective shapes his approach to training law enforcement, corrections, and jail professionals: grounded in clinical knowledge, sharpened by years of statewide systems-level consultation, and attuned to the specific culture, pressures, and unspoken rules of protective professions.

Session Description:
For those navigating substance use in the justice system, jail is often the starting line of recovery. To prevent returning to old cycles, individuals in custody need nourishment, hope, and true human connection.

Through spoken word poetry detailing his own struggles and triumph over addiction, Justin Silvers illustrates why recovering out loud is essential for breaking stigma and inspiring change. Justin will introduce "channel checking"—a mindset tool he uses to maintain sobriety—and explore how poetry acts as a bridge of understanding that separates the people who struggle with addiction from the people on the outside looking in. Attendees will gain insight into jail-based recovery outreach, book sponsorship initiatives in facilities, emergency vehicles, and treatment centers, and how critical connection is during incarceration.

Justin hopes to explain in detail how anyone can adapt to the channel-checking method to incite long lasting mindset change.

Presenter: Justin Silvers
Justin Silvers is a self-published author and motivational speaker. After serving 16 years in prison, he transformed his life through cognitive awareness and self studies. He now shares his journey of resilience and sobriety through his poetry, including his book, In the Struggle, to inspire others.

Justin uses his struggles and his book as a means of connection to those still struggling, and as a tool to bring understanding to the loved ones who do not understand why.

Combining a deep study of personal development with lived experience, he delivers raw, authentic insights that encourage individuals to navigate adversity and reclaim their personal narrative. He is currently pursuing a certificate to become a peer support specialist.

When he isn’t writing, speaking, or preparing for his next outreach, Justin can be found pushing his physical limits through high-intensity CrossFit training and running 5ks in his hometown of Platteville, Wisconsin.