Board of Directors
Richard Hayward, MD
President
Richard Hayward, MD, serves as medical director at Bradford Health Services in Madison and Huntsville, Ala., and Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn. He serves on the board of directors for A Betor Way, a mobile harm reduction service program in Memphis, Tenn., and is an addiction medicine physician at MidSouth Recovery Specialist in Memphis.
He received his medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies. He completed residency training at the University of Tennessee Family Medicine Residency Program in Jackson, and a fellowship in addition medicine at Baptist Memorial in Memphis, Tenn.
He is board certified in addiction medicine and family medicine.
Sonja Williams, DO
President-Elect
Dr. Williams currently works as the Medical Director of Behavioral Health Group in Springfield
(North) MO and Cullman AL. She is fellowship trained and board certified in Addiction
Medicine as well as a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist.
She entered the field of addiction upon recognition that many of her patients required more
treatment than they were able to obtain within the confines of her rural practice area. Feeling
both the dire need and personal lack of training she entered fellowship in addiction medicine at
St Louis University School of Medicine after 18 years of OB/GYN practice.
Her specialties include the intersection of pregnancy and SUD and Trauma and SUD.
Melissa Thompson, MD
Secretary
Dr. Thompson completed medical school at University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1997 and a family medicine residency at University of Wyoming -Cheyenne in 2000.
She is a hospitalist and inpatient detoxification unit medical director at Elmore Community Hospital in Wetumpka, Alabama. She also works in an outpatient MAT clinic in Prattville, Alabama.
Romell Go, MD, FASAM
Treasurer
Rommel Go, MD, FASAM, is a board-certified physician and has a private practice, Go Medical Group, Boaz, AL. He received his medical degree from University of Santo Tomas and has been in practice 24 years.
Dr. Go also speaks multiple languages, including Tagalog and Chinese (Mandarin). He specializes in addiction medicine and is experienced in addiction medicine, general internal medicine, correctional medicine, business management, and diabetes care.
James A. Harrow, MD, PhD, DABAM, FASAM
Member at Large
Jim Harrow, MD, PhD, DABAM, FASAM serves as the Medical Director of the Baptist Center for Addiction Recovery and the Addiction Medicine Service at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery Alabama.
Dr. Harrow attended the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada from 1968 to 1982 obtaining Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees. He entered Medical School in 1976 at the same institution and concurrently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in cardiovascular physiology from 1976 to 1978 and received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1980. Dr. Harrow completed two years of general surgery at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Dr. Harrow, his wife, Betty and their daughter, Aynsley moved to Alexander City, Alabama in 1983. He opened a solo internal medicine practice and was affiliated with Russell Medical Center until he closed his office in May 2012. In July 2012, Dr. Harrow attended the University of Florida College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Division of Addiction Medicine and he completed a Fellowship in Addiction Medicine in June 2013. He became certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine in November 2014.
When he returned to Alabama he accepted employment with Bradford Health Services in Warrior Alabama as an attending addiction medicine physician. From April 2015 to June 2017 he was the Medical Director of the Alabama Physician Health Program with the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. He then joined the teaching staff of the Montgomery Family Medicine Residency Program in July 2017 to August 2018 when he was offered his current position with Baptist Health to develop an addiction medicine service.
J. Luke Engeriser, MD, FASAM
Immediate Past President
J. Luke Engeriser, MD, FASAM, is Deputy Chief Medical Officer at AltaPointe Health. Engeriser serves as an associate professor, and Director of the Psychiatry Residency Program and Addiction Medicine Fellowship at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine
Dr. Engeriser is a Past President of the Alabama Psychiatric Physicians Association, and he is currently President of the Alabama Society of Addiction Medicine. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is board certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine.
Dr. Engeriser attended medical school at Northwestern University and completed psychiatry residency training at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. During his final year of residency, Dr. Engeriser received the Al Glass Award, the military’s highest psychiatry resident research award, for his paper exploring the psychological effects of warfare. Dr. Engeriser served an additional three years in the Army at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he held the position of Chief, Department of Behavioral Health. After separating from the Army, Dr. Engeriser was Medical Director of Mid-Coast Mental Health Center/PenBay Psychiatry in Rockland, Maine. Prior to attending medical school, he completed a Master of Arts in Divinity at the University of Chicago and worked as a teacher of English at the Teacher Training College in Torun, Poland.
William Lievens, MD
Advocacy Chair
Dr. William E. Lievens is a board-certified Addiction Medicine physician in Montgomery, Alabama, where he provides medication-assisted treatment (medications for opioid use disorder) at the Montgomery Metro Treatment Center with New Season. He earned his medical degree from the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami and completed his Neurology residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he received the Residency Research Award, followed by fellowships in Clinical Neurophysiology and Sleep Medicine. Dr. Lievens holds board certifications in Neurology, Sleep Medicine, Epilepsy, and Clinical Neurophysiology and serves as volunteer faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he works with medical students and residents.
He has contributed to the field as an editor for the American Epilepsy Society EEG Atlas, serves on the editorial board of Clinical Neurophysiology, and acts as a peer reviewer for multiple medical journals. He is dedicated to building collaborative, community-based approaches to patient care in Montgomery and expanding access to evidence-based treatment across Alabama.
Bradford Davis
Education Chair
Dr. Davis Bradford is a clinician-educator and assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, board-certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine.
After completing internal medicine residency and serving as a chief resident at Boston University, he joined UAB to provide addiction care on the UAB inpatient Addiction Consult Service, for which he serves as Medical Director; at Beacon Integrated Healthcare, a low-barrier addiction urgent care and integrated primary care clinic for un- and underinsured patients with substance use disorder; and previously at the Birmingham VA's Opioid Reassessment Clinic.
He is committed to expanding addiction education and care in Alabama and serves as Associate Program Director for UAB's ACGME-accredited addiction medicine fellowship.
Marcus Lackey, MD
Member in TrainingÂ
Marcus Lackey, M.D. is currently in his third year of general psychiatry residency training at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL.
He is committed to improving and saving lives through the practice of addiction medicine/psychiatry and serves as an Advisory Member of the Board of Directors of Professionals Resource Network, Florida’s physician health program. Dr. Lackey is a graduate of Florida State University College of Medicine, where he was elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society and served as the President of the Psychiatry Student Interest Group.
Prior to medical school, Dr. Lackey served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and worked in real estate finance and investments. He earned an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. with honors from Georgetown University.