2021 NJPN Conference Program Book

SANDY GIBSON Clinical Coordinator & Professor | The College of New Jersey

Sandy Gibson, PhD, LCSW, LCADC is a Professor with The College of New Jersey. She received her masters and PhD in social work from the University of Maryland with a specialization in addictions. She worked as an addiction counselor for six years in Alexandria, Virginia before completing her PhD in social work and becoming a Study Director at a research institute at Temple University for seven years. There she developed and evaluated addiction prevention and treatment programming, including a Center for Substance Abuse Prevention model program, Across Ages. In 2010 she became faculty at TCNJ in the Department of Counselor Education where she teaches addiction counseling, research and statistics, measurement and evaluation and practicum/internship. During her tenure at TCNJ, she received a contract fromMercer County to direct the Intoxicated Driver Resource Center and recently developed new curriculum that is now used statewide, and a psychoeducation program for adolescents who are convicted of their first possession of cannabis charge that offers accompanying expungement upon completing. She also recently finished a study exploring how the use of Narcan to save someone’s life or have one’s own life saved affects drug use behavior change in the future. Now, she is actively working to promote harm reduction and a shift from a criminal justice to public health-based approach to drug use in New Jersey. Ms. Susan A. Gibson is the Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division. Ms. Gibson’s strong and diverse law enforcement background has afforded her successful working relationships with her state and local counterparts, extensive experience in international drug trafficking organizations and the illicit sale of pharmaceuticals. Ms. Gibson began her law enforcement career as a Police Officer and Narcotics Detective with the Mount Pleasant Police Department, South Carolina. In 1997, Ms. Gibson was hired as a DEA Special Agent and was assigned to the New York City Division’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Unit where she gained invaluable experience conducting both domestic and international narcotics investigations. Early in her career, Ms. Gibson was trained as a Trauma TeamMember and promoted to a Group Supervisor in the New York City Drug Enforcement Task Force, In June 2014, Ms. Gibson was promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New York City Drug Enforcement Task Force overseeing six active enforcement groups. In addition to her duties as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge and then selected for promotion into the Senior Executive Service as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in DEA’s Diversion Control Division’s Regulatory Program, with the responsibility over 1.8 million DEA registrants. In this capacity, she led the programs responsible for the regulation of all controlled substances within the United States and to ensure the proper registration for those who could access them. Ms. Gibson traveled to the. Republic of China as a representative of DEA to work with the Ministry of Public Safety to advocate for the control of all Fentanyl substances produced in their country, ultimately resulting in the control of 32 substances by the Republic of China, and a review of a class control for Fentanyl. Ms. Gibson has testified in front of the United States Congressional House and Energy Committee on the dangers of Synthetic drugs in the United States and the efforts the Drug Enforcement Administration has taken to combat the importation and distribution within the United States. In March 2019, Ms. Gibson became the Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division, overseeing all of DEA’s operations in New Jersey. Ms. Gibson graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Criminal Justice. 36 SUSAN GIBSON Special Agent in Charge | Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)