Families Against Narcotics, based in Clinton Township, a nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness of the dangers of substance use disorder (SUD) and assist individuals and families affected by the disease, has announced new executive board members and directors.
Willie Kalousdian is FAN’s new president, and Jeremiah Campbell is the organization’s new treasurer. Both are in long-term recovery.
“The addition of Willie and Jeremiah to our executive board reflects what FAN is all about,” says Linda Davis, executive director. “They have both overcome adversity and achieved terrific success, and they continue to give back to the community by serving on the FAN board.”
Kalousdian, who’s been a FAN board member since 2014, struggled with SUD from the ages of 16 to 22.
“I started using pain pills after several sports injuries and subsequent surgeries,” he says. He would try to quit every other month or so, but would always go back, and it would always be worse than before.
In 2012, his brother died by suicide and Kalousdian “went downhill even faster, because I felt more justified in what I was doing. I had a good ‘excuse to use.’” After Willie’s family found out about his situation in September of 2012, they immediately got him into inpatient treatment. However, a week after his 21 days at the facility, he says he was using the pills again.
A week later, he was confronted by people in recovery who got him into a sober living house. Kalousdian ended up staying in sober living for a year, got a sponsor, started a 12-step program, which he continues to do today, and has been sober since Sept. 30, 2012.
Campbell is one of the founding members of FAN. He is very active in the recovery community, and has been sober since July of 2007. In honor of his little brother, who lost his life to the disease of addiction, Campbell and a friend opened “Kyle’s House,” a sober living home in Fraser for men. Campbell is a successful entrepreneur, husband, and father, whose life mission is to inspire and guide people to live to their full potential.
Kalousdian and Campbell are joined on FAN’s executive board by Karen Wood, vice president, and Ryan Zemke, secretary. FAN also welcomes three new directors to its board: Roger J. Panella, Stephen Brillati, and Anthony Rubino.
FAN was founded in 2007.
