Dwayne Dean, RCPF, CPRS, RPS

Principal Facilitator & Principal Consultant

About Dwayne

Dwayne is a Recovery Coach Professional Facilitator Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, Registered Peer Supervisor, Recovery Organizational Consultant, Research Interventionist, father, and active member of his community working towards a stronger, supportive community. Dwayne has been a peer recovery specialist since 2016, and his favorite part of being a peer recovery specialist is supporting an effort towards change and pointing out that change is within your grasp. Dwayne’s favorite part of training is making the content practical and feasible to implement it immediately. Dwayne believes training allows him to teach those who are working directly with the population/community, therefore, he can indirectly reach more people, “sort of like equipping soldiers to fight the battle that would be insurmountable to do alone.”

Awards

Dwayne has been in long term recovery since October 14, 2013. Dwayne was acknowledged by the State of Maryland and The Behavioral Health Administration for his leadership, mentoring and advocacy skills. He was presented with “The Carroll Conquest Outstanding Leadership Award.” Dwayne received this award for his enthusiasm for helping others, his generosity and kind spirit. Dwayne was the second person to achieve this acknowledgement of leadership.

He also was presented the Governor’s Citation Award by Governor Larry Hogan on 12/11/18. He was recognized for his leadership and advocacy contributions to combat the opioid crisis in Maryland utilizing peer recovery support. After receiving the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Employee of the Quarter two times in a row, Dwayne was then awarded the 2019 Employee of Excellence and the 2019 Employee of the Year Award for the University of Maryland-Midtown.

Previous Work Experience

Prior to starting his full-time hourly position at the University of Maryland, College Park Dwayne Dean served as the Supervisor and Team Lead for the Peer Recovery Coaches on the S.B.I.R.T. team in the Emergency Department at the University of Maryland-Midtown campus. When the S.B.I.R.T. programs were initiated at the University of Maryland-Midtown, Dwayne was called based on his abilities to engage others and his reputation of success at Powell Recovery Center in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program as a Direct Care Coordinator. In 2017 he was recruited among the core group starting the S.B.I.R.T. program at the University of Maryland Midtown Campus. His leadership skills were quickly recognized, and he was promoted to lead the team. Dwayne and his team exponentially improved outcomes in the emergency room. He oversaw a change in the culture of the emergency dept., and the S.B.I.R.T. team at the University of Maryland-Midtown Campus made more linkages to treatment than any other Emergency Department in the country. While leading his team of PRC’s to making over 3500 linkages to substance abuse /mental health treatment, including 1256 linkages to treatment in 2019 alone.

Dwayne has also previously worked as a Direct Care Coordinator for a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program within a Substance Abuse Program, where he facilitated and developed a curriculum for a “Life Skills “group. He worked with Project Connection in partnership with the Behavioral Health Leadership Institute on a joint project promoting harm reduction and overdose prevention for returning citizens that were being released from the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Facility.

Current Work Experience

Dwayne currently serves an Interventionist for the Global Mental Health and Addictions Program at the University of Maryland College Park. He has worked with this research team for over five years and has been crucial to the lab’s ongoing success securing funding to evaluate peer intervention efforts. He recently co-authored published research on a previous intervention study with the lab for which he served as a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist and interventionist implementing a community-based peer recovery coach model to reach undeserved minority individuals not engaged in substance use treatment for guests at a community outreach center in Southwest Baltimore. He is also currently conducting research through a grant from the National Institute of Health to measure outcomes of having a peer recovery coach-delivered behavioral activation model to measure retention and adherence of persons receiving medication for opiate use disorder. Dwayne is also actively working as a Recovery Coach Professional Facilitator and a Recovery Consultant for organizations in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Georgia, and Siyakhana and Khanya, South Africa.