Jessica Hulsey Nickel ’98

Jessica Hulsey Nickel is the founder and CEO of the Addiction Policy Forum, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for patients and families impacted by addiction, translates the science and helps to implement a comprehensive response that includes prevention, treatment, recovery and criminal justice reform. Her 25-year career focusing on substance use disorder includes work in prevention, treatment, public policy and the criminal justice fields. In 1998, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the Drug-Free Communities Commission that helped guide the implementation of the Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997. She worked for Senator Rob Portman while he was in the House, developing policy strategies around addiction and criminal justice, including the Second Chance Act, Access to Recovery and the Drug Free Communities Act. She has been center-stage at major events, from hosting a forum on addiction for presidential candidates in New Hampshire in 2016, a series of forums on addiction with House and Senate Congressional leaders, to drug policy events with President George W. Bush and President H.W. Bush. She was also profiled in a book by Governor John Kasich (R-Ohio) called “Courage Is Contagious: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things to Change the Face of America” as one of the stories of courage, and her work has been featured in a Lifetime Network series, Discovery Health Channel profile, Cosmopolitan, LA Times, The New York Times, MSNBC and USA Today. Addiction Policy Forum’s current focus spans from and Emergency Medicine Initiative in partnership with Yale Medical School; the ADDICTION video series to translate the science of addiction; the Addiction Resource Center, a new addiction telehealth center; and Focus on Innovation, which highlights innovative programs across the nation.    Jessica is active in service to her community through the Princeton Club of Washington DC and Interfaith Works, a nonprofit dedicated to vulnerable and homeless families.  She is also mom to three beautiful boys – Conner (14), Jack (13) and Tyler (10).