An experienced, dynamic and committed public health professional, Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds is the Executive Director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD). With offices in Mineola, Ronkonkoma and Riverhead, LICADD provides screening, brief intervention and referrals to treatment, as well as professionally-facilitated family interventions, relapse prevention programs and anger management services to adults and adolescents. Under Dr. Reynolds’ leadership, LICADD has pioneered the launch of “Too Good for Drugs, an evidence-based K-12 substance abuse prevention program in several Long Island schools, initiated a new mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents and re-branded its Employee Assistance Program, now called “Open Arms EAP.”
Prior to joining the LICADD team, Dr. Reynolds worked for the Long Island Association for AIDS Care for 19 years, where he started out doing case management and finished his tenure as Vice President for Public Affairs, responsible for government relations, resource development, strategic marketing, and communications. In 1997, he co-founded BiasHELP of Long Island, an organization dedicated to assisting victims of hate crimes and their families. As BiasHELP’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Reynolds secured federal, state and local grants and launched a wide array of crime victim assistance services and school-based violence prevention programs.
Dr. Reynolds currently serves as Chair of the Suffolk County Heroin/Opiate Epidemic Advisory Panel, is on the Executive Committee of the Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force and serves on Suffolk County’s Welfare to Work Commission. He was also recently appointed co-chair of Suffolk County’s Sober Home Oversight Board. Dr. Reynolds remains the longest serving member of the NYS AIDS Advisory Council, first appointed by the NYS Senate Majority Leader in 1994 and reappointed three times since then. Dr. Reynolds has served as a consultant and grant reviewer for the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is a frequent presenter at statewide and national health and human service conferences.
He has authored more than 200 news and op-ed articles that have appeared in a wide variety of publications and is consistently used as an expert source for substance abuse, addiction, HIV/AIDS and human/civil rights information by local and national radio, television, Internet and print outlets. Dr. Reynolds has received numerous awards for his community service and leadership and was named one of the “50 most influential Long Islanders” in 2010, 2011 and 2012 by the Long Island Press.
Dr. Reynolds holds a Bachelors degree in psychology from Dowling College, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) with a specialization in health administration from Long Island University and a doctorate from Stony Brook University’s School of Social Welfare. Dr. Reynolds’ doctoral dissertation was on “Using the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change to Explore Substance Use Patterns and HIV Risk Behaviors in a Suburban Sample” and he remains an Assistant Clinical Professor at Stony Brook. Dr. Reynolds is also a Certified Anger Management Professional, a Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP) and a U.S. Department of Transportation-qualified Substance Abuse Professional (SAP).