Steven Samra
Senior Associate
Steven Samra, MPA, Senior Associate, served for nine years as Deputy Director for SAMHSA's Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) and is skilled at both virtual and onsite training and technical assistance; planning, implementing, and evaluating recovery programs and services; harm reduction; culturally congruent approaches to service delivery; conference planning; and managing training and technical assistance teams.
As a core Recovery team member for SAMHSA’s Opioid Response Network (ORN), Steven provides virtual and onsite training and technical assistance across a diverse cross-section of behavioral health and recovery supports and services, including peer support, leadership, and professionalism; expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT/MOUD); stigma and bias reduction; rural substance use disorder, opioid use disorder, and homelessness support strategies; Motivational Interviewing; criminal justice involvement, re-entry, drug courts, and trauma-informed corrections care; and cultural proficiency, humility, and the impact of the subcultures of addiction, homelessness, and incarceration on treatment and recovery.
He has served in leadership capacities for SAMHSA’s Housing and Homelessness Resource Network, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, and Services in Supportive Housing Technical Assistance Center and has led numerous peer involvement initiatives. Steven brings expertise in developing and leading peer advisory councils, harm reduction approaches, substance use and mental health recovery, peer leadership, criminal justice, cultural competence, promotion of lived experience as critical experiential knowledge, and effective outreach and engagement for challenging populations.
After entering recovery in 1999 from homelessness, complex trauma, substance use, criminal justice involvement, and mental health challenges, Steven began medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in 2000 for a severe and chronic opioid addiction. He discharged from the MAT program under medical supervision on February 13, 2014 and has dedicated his career to assisting and advocating for marginalized, disenfranchised populations.
He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he co-founded a street newspaper, The Contributor, and served for six years as an appointed commissioner on the Nashville Metropolitan Homelessness Commission. Steven also serves on the Nashville/Davidson Metropolitan Strategic Planning Committee to end homelessness in Nashville. He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from California State University, Chico and utilizes his personal experience as a person and parent in long-term recovery in addition to his content expertise to deliver technical assistance through both a professional and a lived experience lens.
Contact Steven at ssamra@c4innovates.com.
Examples of Steven’s Work
- Criminal Justice & Race Equity in Recovery Services—podcast episode with Daryl McGraw and Steven Samra (20:36 minutes)
- Growing Peer Support in Alabama—podcast episode with Pamela Butler and Steven Samra (19:45 minutes)
- Whole-Person Care for People Experiencing Homelessness & Opioid Use Disorder with the Homeless and Housing Resources Center
- Homeless Service and Mobile Crisis Providers Working Together by Steven Samra in CARE Quarterly
- What I Needed When I Was Experiencing Homelessness by Steven Samra
- Cafecito Conversation with Steven Samra
- Integrating Peer Support Workers in Interdisciplinary Care Teams by C4’s Laura Gillis, Robert Sember, and Steven Samra as well as Rachel Latta with funding from SAMHSA's Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) project
- Sharing My Journey with the Recovery Field, a podcast episode
- Intersections of Trauma, Mental Health, and Substance Use, a podcast episode
- Health and Recovery 1: Kindness, Dignity and Respect, a podcast episode
- Recovery at Work: Steven Samra (Part 2), a podcast episode
- My Recovery Journey: Steven Samra (4:35 minute video)
- My Experience in a Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Program: Steven Samra (5:17 minute video)
- Substance Use and Mental Health Recovery Support
- Opioid Overdose Prevention and Support
- Medication-Assisted Treatment/Medication-Assisted Recovery
- Criminal Justice System Reform and Re-Entry Supports
- Housing Solutions
- Stigma and Recovery