This week, Scott Nolen, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Drug Addiction Treatment Program graduated from the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, an initiative hosted by the presidential centers of George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Nolen was one of 60 people selected for the program’s third cohort which ran from February through July – including an opening week session and one extended weekend per month thereafter.
“It is an amazing program that supports discourse on policy and leadership issues among a racially, culturally and politically diverse group of folks,” said Nolen. “The program helps motivate, inform and support an interest in public service among a group of really creative thinkers, which I think is critically important.”
Each scholar brought to the program a Personal Leadership Project, which could be in any phase from conception to completion, similar, said Nolen, to the kinds of fellowships that OSI-Baltimore funds. Nolen’s project focused on developing a grassroots understanding and support for a safe injection facility in Baltimore, which builds on current efforts by the Drug Addiction Treatment program working closely with the Open Society Foundations Public Health Program.
The ceremony, held at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, included a moderated conversation between President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. View the ceremony here (Nolen can be seen starting at the 1:14:58 mark).
