Dr. Rahul Gupta, Former White House Drug Policy Director, to Keynote Mobile's Reimagining Opioid Abatement Conference
First physician to lead national drug policy will address community-centered solutions at October 22 summit
Dr. Rahul Gupta, the first physician to serve as Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will deliver the keynote address at the Reimagining Opioid Abatement Conference on Oct. 22, 2025, in Mobile.
Gupta, who led federal efforts that achieved the largest reduction in overdose deaths in U.S. history, will deliver a talk titled "The Opposite of Addiction is Community: Working Together to Stop Opioid Misuse." This will kick off the daylong conference examining innovative approaches to combating the opioid crisis, as well as the underlying issues that lead to opioid use and misuse.
"Dr. Gupta brings unparalleled experience from both the frontlines of public health and the highest levels of policy-making," said Caroline Etherton, Chair of The Helios Alliance, which is organizing the conference. "His leadership during a critical period in our nation's response to the overdose crisis makes him the ideal speaker to help us reimagine how communities can work together."
Gupta has deep ties to Alabama, having started his medical practice in rural Alabama and later serving as faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. In addition to being a board-certified internist, he holds a Master's of Public Health and a global Master's of Business Administration in Technology and Innovation. He currently serves as president of GATC Health, a company using artificial intelligence for drug discovery and personalized healthcare solutions through genomic data analysis.
Before joining the White House, Gupta served as Chief Medical and Health Officer at March of Dimes and as State Health Officer and Public Health Commissioner in West Virginia under both Democratic and Republican governors. Throughout his career, he has led responses to multiple public health crises, including the opioid epidemic, Zika outbreak, and 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
The Reimagining Opioid Abatement conference will bring together decision-makers and frontline workers to explore community-centered solutions addressing not only opioid misuse but underlying factors such as poverty, lack of education and employment, and housing instability.
"It will take a community-centric approach to address not only the opioid epidemic but also the underlying causes of it," said conference organizers. "That's what we plan to highlight, and Dr. Gupta's keynote will set the tone."
Sessions will focus on building stable communities that enable recovery, innovative care delivery, therapeutic justice approaches, prevention, stigma reduction, community coordination, and scaling successful solutions.
The conference is being held in partnership with the City of Mobile, Mobile County, and various organizations working on opioid response efforts.
Registration information and the full conference agenda are available here.
