Regina LaBelle Honored for Work Leading Substance Use Education

(November 14, 2025) — The Association for Multidisciplinary Research and Education in Substance Use and Addiction (AMERSA) awarded School of Health professor Regina LaBelle, JD (L’92), with its 2025 John P. McGovern Award for Excellence in Medical Education.

The award is presented to an individual “who has made important contributions to substance use education and research.” LaBelle received the award November 13 at AMERSA’s annual conference in Portland, Oregon.

“I am honored to receive the John P. McGovern Award for Excellence in Medical Education from AMERSA,” said LaBelle. “This award reflects the important work taking place every day to transform our nation’s response to addiction. By bridging evidence and compassion, and including the voices of people with lived experience, we can create lasting change that supports individuals, families and communities affected by substance use.”

LaBelle directs the Addiction Policy and Practice Program in the School of Health, a master’s degree program she established in 2021 at Georgetown, where she also teaches. She is also founding director of the Center on Addiction and Public Policy at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law. At the center, she manages a project portfolio that operates at the intersection of public health and the law to advance a public health approach to drug policy.

LaBelle has decades of public sector experience at the federal and local levels of government. A political appointee in both the Biden and Obama administrations, LaBelle served as acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in 2021. She also served as an ONDCP appointee for the two terms of the Obama administration, where she oversaw the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic.