Mark D. Godley, PhD, MSW

Director Emeritus, Lighthouse Institute

Graduated Southern Illinois University—Carbondale, 1984, and Worden School of Social Work, Our Lady of Lake University, 1975

Specialty areas: substance use disorder treatment and recovery management outcome research; EBP implementation research; behavioral approaches to addiction treatment; recovery monitoring and support; diffusion and implementation research; program evaluation

Dr. Mark Godley has devoted his career to improving the lives of those with substance use disorders, serving as a therapist, clinic program director, treatment effectiveness and implementation researcher, and research administrator. In 1975, he began a multi-year collaboration with Dr. Nate Azrin and colleagues (IL Behavior Research Lab) to trial the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) in an outpatient clinic. This collaboration was a master class in behavior therapy development, treatment outcome research, and translating science to practice through empirical training and implementation strategies. Dr. Godley subsequently joined Chestnut Health Systems serving as Director of Research and Development (retitled as Director, Lighthouse Institute) from 1987–2014 and Senior Scientist from 2014–2022. He and Lighthouse Institute founder, Bill White, brought firsthand understanding of SUDs, clinical practice, and supervision to their evaluation partnerships with provider organizations and relied on this combination of experience to launch Lighthouse Institute’s program evaluation work. Soon joined by Dr. Susan Harrington Godley and, later, Drs. Christy Scott and Michael Dennis, the Lighthouse Institute team bootstrapped from program evaluation to investigator-initiated work in biopsychosocial assessment, adolescent SUD treatment, and continuing care/recovery management projects of national significance. By 2011, the Lighthouse Institute portfolio of research, evaluation, and training projects supported 12 scientists and 130 staff.

Dr. Godley’s research on continuing care and recovery monitoring and support received continuous NIH support from 1997–2018. In 2006, he collaborated with Drs. Susan Harrington Godley, Robert J. Meyers, Jane Ellen Smith, and Bryan R. Garner on the development and implementation of a national evidence-based treatment center (EBTx, renamed EBP) to disseminate the Community Reinforcement Approach for adolescents (A-CRA), Assertive Continuing Care (ACC), and, later, adult CRA. He served as the Institute’s EBTx Center Director from 2015–2022. At the time of his retirement, the Center had trained and certified over 1,600 clinicians from more than 700 organizations representing almost every state and province in the USA and Canada, and several countries abroad.

Dr. Godley is grateful to past Chestnut CEO and Lighthouse Institute co-founder, Russ Hagen, for the opportunity of his career: nurturing Lighthouse Institute from its earliest days to a scientific enterprise improving clinical practice ranging from screening and assessment to long-term recovery support, resulting in improved quality of life for thousands of people with substance use and other disorders.

Selected Publications: 

Azrin, N. H., Sisson, R. W., Meyers, R. J., & Godley, M. D. (1982). Alcoholism treatment by community reinforcement and disulfiram therapy. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 13(2), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(82)90050-7

Mallams, J. H., Godley, M. D., Hall, G. M., & Meyers, R. J. (1982). A social systems approach to resocializing alcoholics in the community. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 43(11), 1115–1123. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsa.1982.43.1115

Godley, M. D., Godley, S. H., Dennis, M. L., Funk, R. R., & Passetti, L. L. (2002). Preliminary outcomes from the assertive continuing care experiment for adolescents discharged from residential treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 23(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0740-5472(02)00230-1

Godley, M. D., Kahn, J. H., Dennis, M. L., Godley, S. H., & Funk, R. R. (2005). The stability and impact of environmental factors on substance use and problems after adolescent outpatient treatment. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19, 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-164X.19.1.62

Godley, M. D., Godley, S. H., Dennis, M. L., Funk, R. R., & Passetti, L. L. (2007). The effectiveness of assertive continuing care on continuing care linkage, adherence, and abstinence following residential treatment of adolescents with substance use disorders. Addiction, 102(1), 81–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01648.x

Godley, M. D., Coleman-Cowger, V. H., Titus, J. C., Funk, R. R., & Orndorff, M. G. (2010). A randomized controlled trial of telephone continuing care. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 38(1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2009.07.006

Godley, S. H., Garner, B. R., Smith, J. E., Meyers, R. J., & Godley, M. D. (2011). A large-scale dissemination and implementation model for evidence-based treatment and continuing care. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 18(1), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2011.01236.x

Godley, M. D., Godley, S. H., Dennis, M. L., Funk, R. R., Passetti, L. L., & Petry, N. M. (2014). A randomized trial of Assertive Continuing Care and contingency management for adolescents with substance use disorders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(1), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035264

Campos-Melady, M., Smith, J. E., Meyers, R. J., Godley, S. H., & Godley, M. D. (2017). The effect of therapists’ adherence and competence in delivering the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach on client outcomes. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31(1), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000216

Godley, M. D., Passetti, L. L., Hunter, B. D., Greene, A. R., & White, W. L. (2019). A randomized trial of Volunteer Recovery Support for Adolescents (VRSA) following residential treatment discharge. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 98, 15–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2018.11.014

Godley, M. D., Passetti, L. L., Hunter, B. D., & Griffin, B. A. (2022). Volunteer Recovery Support for Adolescents: Using propensity score-based methods to understand dosage effects within a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. 132, 108637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108637

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Selected Grants and Contracts: 

Principal Investigator: Assertive Aftercare Protocol (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: R01 AA10368, 1997–2003)

Principal Investigator: Effectiveness of Contingency Management Enhanced Assertive Aftercare (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: 2R01 AA10368, 2003–2009)

Principal Investigator: Effectiveness of Volunteer-based Telephone Continuing Care for Adolescents with Alcohol and Other Drug Use Disorders (National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse: R01 AA02118-01A1, 2012–2018)

Co-Project Investigator: contract to Chestnut Health Systems for GAIN and A-CRA/ACC technical assistance (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, SAMHSA: 270-07-0191, 2008–2012)

EBTx Center Director: contracts to train and certify clinical treatment providers in the adult and adolescent versions of the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA; A-CRA) and Recovery Management and Support (RMS) from Single State Authorities (SSAs) in CT, MA, DE, ME, KY, TN, OK, IN, IL, MI, OH, CO, AZ, WA, LA, MS, SC, ID, UT, CA-HIS, PR (State/Tribal Authorities for Substance Use Treatment, 2012–2019)

Appointments and Awards: 

Outstanding Social Work Research Award, Worden School of Social Service (1975)

Illinois Governor's Advisory Board on Alcohol Treatment Licensure; Illinois Department of Public Health (1978–1985)

Research Advisory Council, Illinois Prevention Resource Center, Springfield and Chicago, Illinois (1994–1996)

Advisor, ONDCP on Adolescent Recovery (2010)

Advisor, SAMHSA on Adolescent substance use disorders and justice involvement (2011)

Advisor, SAMHSA, Adolescent Treatment and Recovery (2011–2012)

Co-Editor, special issue on organizational research, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (April 2012)

Related Links:

Mark Godley Google Scholar

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Mark Godley ResearchGate