Meri Shadley, Ph.D. is an international known speaker with a 45-year career combining family therapy and addiction prevention and recovery treatment. As a licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical alcohol and drug counselor, Dr. Shadley has dedicated her professional career to clinical practice and mentoring the next generation of therapists and recovery advocates. Through her roles as an approved supervisor, University professor and speaker, she has published, consulted, and presented on family systems therapy, women’s issues, collegiate recovery, and integrating somatic approaches into recovery treatment. She is a past chair of AAMFT's topical interest
network on Substance Use and other Addictive Disorders and a past Divisional President. She founded several agencies through the years and was the co-developer (with W.M. DeWitt) of the SPATS framework for understanding and treating family systems. Dr. Shadley remains
active in her community’s professional organizations and most recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Association for Recovery in Higher Education in 2020.