Dr. Heather Roe completed her medical education at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ, followed by a residency at the University of Kansas in Wichita.

Board Certified in both Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine, Dr. Roe has been practicing in the field of addiction medicine since 2011. Her clinical experience spans various levels of care, including detoxification, residential treatment, outpatient services, and methadone maintenance.

In 2017, Dr. Roe established Harmony Medical Clinic, a private practice where she provides comprehensive outpatient addiction medicine services. Her practice is known for its inclusive approach, treating both adults and adolescents and utilizing long acting injectables to support recovery.

Dr. Roe is deeply committed to offering compassionate and respectful care, particularly to those who have been marginalized by the healthcare system. A strong advocate for harm reduction policies, she strives to create a safer and more supportive environment for her patients.

Beyond her direct patient care, Dr. Roe has worked as a professional consultant, assisting companies nationwide to build policies that optimize the care they provide to patients.

Dr. Anthony J. Strickland, MD, FASAM specializes in both family medicine and addiction medicine and is the current Treasurer of MWSAM. With a fervent commitment to advancing socially just healthcare practices, Dr. Strickland advocates passionately for increased accessibility to life-saving medications and the widespread adoption of harm reduction principles throughout our healthcare system and communities.

Born, raised, and trained in both Nebraska and Kansas, now practicing in Kansas and Missouri, he recognizes the acute challenges faced by patients throughout the Midwest.  Dr. Strickland views the current landscape as an opportune moment to mobilize resources towards impactful programs and services. His vision centers on establishing a robust and sustainable healthcare infrastructure rooted in principles of social justice. By dismantling barriers to care and advocating for policy changes aligned with cutting-edge medical research on substance use disorders, he aims to catalyze systemic improvements that benefit all patients.

Central to Dr. Strickland’s mission is the empowerment of primary care physicians through education and enhanced payment models that incentivize and reinforce the delivery of this essential service. He champions the integration of substance use disorder care into primary care settings, envisioning a network where locally trusted physicians can provide on-demand support aligned with evidence-based practices.

Dr. Anthony J. Strickland is dedicated to enhancing healthcare equity and advancing the field of addiction medicine to transform not just individual lives but also drive meaningful progress towards a more just and compassionate healthcare system for all.

Niraj R. Chavan, MD, MPH, FACOG, FASAM

 Niraj R. Chavan, MD, MPH, FACOG, FASAM is a Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) and Addiction Medicine physician who specializes in the management of substance use during pregnancy. He serves as the Medical Director of the Women and Infant Substance Help (WISH) Center at Saint Louis University (SLU) / SSM Health, focused on providing comprehensive prenatal care and recovery services for women with perinatal substance use disorders (SUD) in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Chavan is an Associate Professor in the Div. of MFM, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health at SLU. He also serves as the Program Director for the MFM fellowship, core faculty for the Addiction Medicine fellowship and Course Director for a 4th year elective on “Perinatal Addiction and Maternal Mental Health” at SLU School of Medicine. He is Board Certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology as well as Maternal Fetal Medicine, through the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Board Certified in Addiction Medicine through the American Board of Preventive Medicine. He has lectured extensively on various aspects of perinatal SUD management at the local, regional and national level through various platforms including the SLU College of Law – Annual Health Law Symposium, SLU Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health, Missouri Perinatal Quality Collaborative / Missouri Hospital Association, the Illinois Maternal Health Summit, the Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting (ACSM) of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG), the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM) annual conference and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Dr. Chavan has held several leadership roles in membership organizations – including – ACOG and SMFM. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG) as the Early Career Fellow-at-Large and is a member of the ACOG Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines for Obstetrics as well as the Quality and Safety Initiatives delegation. He is also a member of the SMFM – Patient Safety and Quality Committee. He has previously served as the Early Career Fellow Chair for ACOG District VII (regional leadership), member of the ACOG District VII Executive Committee and District VII Maternal Mortality workgroup as well as Treasurer and Vice-Chair for Kentucky Section ACOG. Dr. Chavan also currently serves as the Chair Elect for the Missouri Perinatal Associated Mortality Review (PAMR) Board and is an active member the Missouri Perinatal Quality Collaborative (MO PQC). Most recently, he has been working with the Missouri Hospital Association to implement the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) substance use disorders in pregnancy bundle across birthing hospitals in MO. He has previously served as a member of the Kentucky Maternal Mortality Review Committee (KY MMRC), and member of the executive committee as well as Data Analytics Lead for the Kentucky Perinatal Quality Collaborative (KYPQC).

John J. Cascone, MD
My name is John Cascone. I am from Kansas City, Missouri. After graduating from Rockhurst High School in 1987, I entered medical school at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine Six-Year Program. I completed my bachelor’s degree and medical degree in 1993. Following graduation from medical school, I did an internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center from 1993 through 1996. From 1996 through 2009, I worked as an internal medicine physician in the primary care setting and as a hospitalist. I entered an infectious disease fellowship at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, in 2012 and completed the fellowship in 2014. I am Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. My clinical practice involves being a medical director and primary care physician for four long-term care facilities in Southwest Missouri. In addition, I do infectious diseases for the University of Kansas Campus in Topeka, St. Francis Hospital, and the Kansas City VA Medical Center.
I live in Joplin, Missouri, with my wife. We have three wonderful children. Our eldest son is an attorney in Kansas City, our middle son is in medical school at our alma mater, and our daughter is a junior in college. In addition to my medical practice, I am active in the recovery community and serve as president of the Missouri Physician Health Foundation. The PHP is an opportunity to give back to the recovery community and share my experience, strength, and hope.

Dr. Kenneth Zoucha is an addiction medicine physician in Nebraska and serves as Director of Addiction Medicine for the Department of Psychiatry and Program Director for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Board certified in Pediatrics and Addiction Medicine Dr. Zoucha spent the first 20 years of his career as a general pediatrician in Nebraska. He now specializes in the treatment of substance use disorders in adolescents. Dr. Zoucha serves as medical director of Radius, a specialized restorative treatment center serving youth with a broad array of experiences, backgrounds, and trauma involved with juvenile justice. He is passionate about education of our future physicians in treatment of substance use disorders in patients of all ages, hoping to bring addiction care into medical offices in all communities in the state.