BOSTON — The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) Is today announcing the following staffing changes as the organization moves into its seventh year of linking America’s law enforcement community with resources to create a pathway to treatment for their residents in the grip of substance use disorder:
Executive Director Allie Hunter, who has led P.A.A.R.I. since 2016, will be leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities and independent projects, including the innovative Community Syringe Redemption Program she co-founded in 2020. Hunter has played a critical role in P.A.A.R.I.’s growth and success, and we sincerely thank her for her dedication, passion, and leadership. Her last day will be January 19, 2022 and the Board wishes her the best of luck in her future endeavors.
The board is very pleased to announce that Zoe Grover J.D., a founding P.A.A.R.I. board member, will be stepping in as the interim executive director to help transition the organization to a new director to be announced later this year. Grover, a veteran non-profit leader, has been a key team member since the beginning of P.A.A.R.I.
The board has also appointed Brittney Garrett as the Director of Law Enforcement Outreach & Training. Garrett brings more than 14 years of law enforcement and leadership experience, most recently serving as the Administrative Commander at Jeffersontown Police Department in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. In 2017 she received a P.A.A.R.I. Leadership Award for creating the Jeffersontown Angel Program, P.A.A.R.I.’s first law enforcement partnership in the state of Kentucky. She has also served as a member of P.A.A.R.I.’s National Police Council and has mentored P.A.A.R.I.’s team of Recovery Corps members. Garrett received her bachelor’s degree in Justice Administration from the University of Louisville and holds a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University-Global Campus. In keeping with P.A.A.R.I.’s mission to train and support law enforcement with non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery, in this new role, she will be working to provide training and support to P.A.A.R.I.’s current law enforcement partners and expand P.A.A.R.I.’s impact to new police departments across the country.
“I am grateful to Allie Hunter for her years of service to P.A.A.R.I., and very excited that our work continues to move forward as our staff and leadership team continue to grow,” said John Rosenthal, co-founder and chair of the board. “With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s vital that our leaders both at the municipal and federal levels continue to aggressively carve pathways to treatment and recovery for those suffering from substance use disorder. The opioid epidemic did not end when the COVID pandemic started. If anything, the scourge has gotten worse as attention and resources were redirected to the pandemic over the past two years. P.A.A.R.I. serves as a vehicle to remind people that help is out there and meaningful recovery is possible.”
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About P.A.A.R.I.: The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help law enforcement agencies nationwide create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery. Founded alongside the groundbreaking Gloucester, Mass., Police Department Angel Initiative in June 2015, P.A.A.R.I. has been a driving force behind this rapidly expanding community policing movement. We provide technical assistance, coaching, grants, and other capacity-building resources to more than 700 police departments in 40 states. We currently work with more than 130 law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts alone. P.A.A.R.I. and our law enforcement partners are working towards a collective vision where non-arrest diversion programs become a standard policing practice across the country, thereby reducing overdose deaths, expanding access to treatment, improving public safety, reducing crime, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and increasing trust between law enforcement and their communities. Our programs and partners have saved thousands of lives, changed police culture, reshaped the national conversation about the opioid epidemic and have placed over 30,000 people into treatment since its founding in June 2015. Learn more at paariusa.org.
