Association of Recovery Schools & Recovery Africa

Association of Recovery Schools – Kristen Harper M.Ed., LCDC is the Executive Director of the Association of Recovery Schools (ARS) and a person living in long-term recovery (Est. 2001). ARS supports existing as well as emerging recovery high school programs by providing schools with an optional accreditation process and best practices trainings. Kristen is pursuing a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration at Texas Tech University, where she was the Collegiate Recovery Communities (CRC) Replication Coordinator for the Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery over the past three years. Prior to joining Tech, she founded a CRC at Georgia Southern University in 2008. One of the most rewarding project Kristen has been working on in addition to school and career is the Recovery Africa effort that the Hopeful Way Foundation is leading in West Africa. She has been to Ghana three times over the past three years to spread the message of recovery and hope to Ghanaian addicts and their families. "Every time I go to Ghana, I am reminded of how it must have been in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1930's. I am so grateful for the unique opportunity to serve in such an amazing country!”