Lauren H. Grawert, MD, FASAM
Candidate for Director-at-Large
Lauren H. Grawert, MD, FASAM is a double board-certified psychiatrist and addiction psychiatrist with extensive experience in clinical leadership, advocacy, and innovative substance use disorder treatment. She previously served as Chief of Psychiatry and Addiction for Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic, and currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of Aware Recovery Care, overseeing addiction treatment programs across more than 12 states. Dr. Grawert is Secretary of the Virginia Society of Addiction Medicine and is actively engaged in addiction policy and advocacy in the DC area. A passionate physician leader and medical writer, she is committed to advancing evidence-based, accessible addiction care and strengthening the voice of addiction medicine.
Candidate Questionnaire Responses
1. How would your election to the ASAM Board of Directors benefit ASAM and the field of addiction medicine?
I believe my greatest value to ASAM lies in my ability to bridge multiple worlds within addiction medicine. My experience spans frontline clinical care, executive healthcare leadership, physician education, mid-level provider education, public policy, advocacy, and entrepreneurship, allowing me to understand the challenges facing addiction medicine from several different perspectives.
I have dedicated my career to translating evidence into practice—whether by leading national clinical programs, educating clinicians across the country, advocating for sound public policy, or communicating with the public through writing and speaking. I hope to bring that same collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to the ASAM Board.
Living in the Washington DC area also gives me easy geographic advantages for in-person ASAM advocacy needs on Capitol hill. I'm ten minutes from Capitol hill!
Most importantly, I believe my experience helping educate and support advanced practice clinicians nationwide positions me to contribute to ASAM's continued growth, influence, and mission of improving the quality of addiction treatment across the country.
2. Candidate Statement
As a double board certified addiction psychiatrist, I have dedicated my career to expanding access to high quality, evidence based addiction treatment through executive clinical leadership, state and national advocacy, education, and systems change. I currently serve as Chief Medical Officer at Aware Recovery Care, which offers patient-centered, muliti-disciplinary addiction treatment across eleven states, founded Advanced Practice Partners to clinically support hundreds of psychiatric nurse practitioners and physician assistants nationwide, previously served for eight years as Chief of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic, and currently serve as a governor appointed physician member of the statewide Virginia DMV Medical Advisory Board.
My commitment to ASAM extends well beyond membership. As Secretary of the Virginia Society of Addiction medicine (VASAM) and active member of its Advocacy Committee and Rapid Response Team, I have partnered with ASAM and state legislative leaders to advance addiction policy. Most recently, I provided key subcommittee testimony supporting Virginia legislation that eliminated the state's counseling requirement for office-based buprenorphine treatment, removing unnecessary barriers to medications for opioid use disorder and expanding access to lifesaving care.
If elected, I would bring executive leadership experience, a collaborative approach, and a unique perspective on today's addiction workforce. Through my work with hundres of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, I have built deep relationships with the clinicians who will increasingly deliver addiction care. I am passioante about expanding their engagement within ASAM while advancing high-quality, evidence-based addiction treatment nationwide.