Summary
According to the homepage:
“The ASAM Presidential Award honors an individual for outstanding dedication and service in addressing addiction issues or promoting education, training or awareness of the specialty of addiction medicine.”
The award’s name comes from its selection process, which consists entirely of the discretion of the ASAM President. As a general rule of thumb, I look at awards as a signal from an organization about what it values. From the 2026 press release announcing the winner:
“ASAM President Stephen Taylor, MD, MPH, DFAPA, DFASAM, has selected Dr. Athanasiou for this honor in 2026. Dr. Athanasiou is a supervising mental health psychiatrist with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and a health sciences associate clinical professor with the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA. As chair of the ASAM Publications Council and editor in chief of The ASAM Weekly, he has helped keep addiction medicine audiences informed of the latest commentary, news, and research shaping the field”
So I see this award as a nod to those within ASAM who work on their publications and communications.
It seems Brian Hurley, the ASAM President during the 2024 and 2025 award processes, declined to grant it to anyone. It’s possible that the pages are simply not updated or the announcements weren’t archived, so I’ll update this if I find any more information. On the other hand, a discretionary award can be seen as motivated by political or professional ambitions, so it’s possible Hurley just didn’t want to enter that thicket.
The 2023 award went to Anthony P. Albanese, who worked to expand associated health training positions within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with an emphasis on shifting to a Whole Health model of car and serving veterans struggling with chronic pain in rural areas. Albanese is also a professor within the University of California system ( Davis). The ASAM President at the time was William F. Haning III.
Links
- https://www.asam.org/membership/asam-award-programs/presidential-award
- https://downloads.asam.org/sitefinity-production-blobs/docs/default-source/pressreleases/2026/governance---membership/annual-awards-press-release-2026-_-final.pdf?sfvrsn=2035e977_3
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8560099/