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About Us

At Vegas Stronger our guiding principle is that the optimal pathway for opioid addicted people to be restored to productive membership in society is the wholistic combination of Medication Management, Psychosocial Therapy, Housing, and Vocational/Occupational Training. We at Vegas Stronger will aim to remove funding constraints and supply every addicted or newly recovering person with oral, injectable or an implant for free.  The only caveat will be that the individual has no medical contraindications and each of them must remain active in an approved behavioral counseling course of treatment.

OUR PROGRAM

The Vegas Stronger program is 30 to 90 days of intensive outpatient treatment followed by up to a full year of occupational therapy during the day and a combination of counseling and 12-Step meetings during the evenings.  We ensure housing and employment transition and training to all program participants and will link those clients to crucial social service agencies. Vitamin, nutrition, and fitness support are offered in tandem with the housing, counseling, and occupational services to optimize outcomes.

Utilizing our network of community partners, Vegas Stronger is uniting medication, therapeutic treatment, case management, housing and work training, along with a wide variety of social services to create an effective web we are certain will greatly diminish detrimental impacts from the opioid epidemic.  Utilizing data aggregation and analysis we track and monitor each client through a series of milestones and related metrics. This data compilation and tracking will include urinalysis, clinical markers and progress through abstinence and employability. By tracking program outcomes, we have created an efficacious program that can be scaled for expansion and implementation at a state and federal level.

The Proposed Vegas Stronger Network

In order to achieve the desired outcome – that every opioid addicted person will be provided an easily accessible pathway to seek out, find and live their own best life through an individualized recovery process – a robust hub-and-spoke network of community partners will be required.  The proposed Vegas Stronger Network includes the Las Vegas Rescue Mission for immediate housing, food, and counseling services; Crossroads Treatment Center for detoxification service and rehabilitation treatment; Silver State Health Services for Primary Healthcare; Catholic Charities for Food, Housing, Rehabilitation and Counseling services; Veterans Village of Las Vegas for holistic, comprehensive housing for Veterans; Goodwill Enterprises of Southern Nevada for vocational training and placement, and the UNLV School of Social Work for evaluation of outcome.  Vegas Stronger will be the hub and clearinghouse for facilitating allocation of these various crucial services to those suffering from opioid addiction.  We will provide project management services, communications and public relations, fundraising as well as data collection and analysis. Medication delivery will include state of the art non-opioid-based Medication Assisted Treatment with Naltrexone in oral, injectable and implantable versions as well as psychotropics (i.e. generic Abilify, Seroquel, Risperdal, etc.) in oral and injectable versions to address co-occurring needs.  

Founders & Board Members

Tom R. Skancke

Founder

Tom Skancke is the CEO of MetroMotion, a strategic consulting company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.  He has worked at the intersection of public policy, intentional communications, government affairs and start-ups for over twenty-five years.  On a national and global scale, he has spent his career specializing in fundamental problem identification and integrated analyses of complex systems.  In all his roles he has developed strategic solutions and led organizations to explore systemic connection points, thereby unlocking new growth and service opportunities.  

David Marlon

Founder

David Marlon founded and built one of the most successful addiction recovery centers in the country, in the heart of Southern Nevada. The 30-year Las Vegas resident, after successfully addressing his own struggles with substance abuse, realized that he was uniquely suited to help others confronting addiction. Dave has been consistently recognized by his peers as a leader in his field.  He is the President of the Southern Nevada Association of Addiction Professionals (SNAAP) and was recognized with the 2018 National Advocacy Award from NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals. 

John Seeland

Founder

John came from South Florida to Las Vegas 5 years ago to serve as COO and soon after as CEO of Las Vegas Recovery Center.  While there over the space of 3 years he became enamored with the Las Vegas community and committed to remaining local, focused on helping the underserved population.  Transitioning to COO of a Federally Qualified Health Center, Silver State Health Services, John became involved with community partners providing behavioral health and primary care medical services and addressing social determinates of health for at risk populations.  Now with Vegas Stronger comes the opportunity to focus 30 years of healthcare experience and 33 years of personal recovery from addiction toward mitigating the effects of this opioid epidemic.

Nyla Christian
Board Member
Senior Manager, Strategic Business Development
Mosaic451
Liza Zenkin, MBA
Treasurer
CFO, CrossRoads of Southern Nevada
Byron 2018 Glasses
Byron Goynes
Board Member
Equal Opportunity Board of Clark County
Director, Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Center
Senator Patricia Farley
Board Member
CEO, Southwest Supply Company
Mike Adams
Board Member
Vice President of Clinical Affairs
CrossRoads of Southern Nevada
Kim Miller
Kim Miller
Secretary
CEO, Life is Sweet Cookie Co.
Youth Sunday School Teacher & Homemaker
Jose Solario
Board Member
Entrepreneur & Latino Community Advocate
James Payne
James Payne
Board Member
Manager
Westgate Resorts Hotel & Casino Las Vegas

Daniel Hill, Esq.
Board Member
Hill Firm Lawyers

Our Staff

Dr. Joseph Rhodes, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Joe is an experienced fundraiser, educator, and public communicator. Joe joined the Vegas Stronger team in February 2020. As a former Assistant Professor in the UNLV Honors College, he is especially passionate about the data-driven research components of the Vegas Stronger program. “Sharing our collective expertise with the entire world through peer-review publication is an incredible opportunity,” he notes; “it is one that few nonprofits in the world can say they have done. It’s what really drives my passion for Vegas Stronger’s mission.”

Joe holds a doctorate in Political Communication from Louisiana State University, is a certified Major Gifts Officer, a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster youth, and a Harvard University Veritas lecturer on Science & Religion.

Joseph Rhodes
Vegas Stronger does not discriminate and does not permit discrimination, including, without limitation, bullying, abuse or harassment, on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, political affiliation or expression or HIV status, or based on association with another person on account of that person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or HIV status.

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