Transcript
A (0:00)
Welcome to the Thriving With Addiction podcast, where we explore how recovery is not just about surviving, but about truly living. Each week, we'll dive into the science stories and strategies that help people and families heal from addiction and build healthier, more resilient lives. I'm your host, Dr. John Avery. Let's get started. Today I'm joined by Robin Kellner and John Sitcher. Robin and John have dedicated their lives to advocacy and community service. After long and varied careers, Robin built and sold a successful recruitment business. And after the loss of her daughter Zoe in 2007, she partnered with New York Presbyterian and Weill Cornell to fight stigma around mental health and substance use and to promote harm reduction. John's career was in corporate law and publishing, and since selling his business, he has worked with Robin to support New York Presbyterian and Weill Cornell initiatives that help keep people who use drugs safe. Alongside their advocacy, Robin pursues art and John photography, both finding creative ways to connect and give back. John and Robin, welcome to be here, John.
B (1:08)
It's nice to be here. It's nice to be doing this.
A (1:11)
So great to have you. And, you know, we do things all the time together. We've partnered for years to tell Zoe's story and do Narcan and fight stigma. So I feel like I know you so well. But for our listeners to start, could you tell us just a little bit about yourselves, your background, your careers, and maybe a little bit even of how you two met?
B (1:30)
Oh, my. Do you want to tell the story about how we met?
C (1:34)
You go first, Robin.
B (1:35)
I really had an art background, and then out of necessity, created a business and had a successful business. And then in 2012, I sold my business. And, I mean, I always wanted. Even when I was in business, I always wanted to do good. I always wanted to see if I could do something to help others. And I sold my business, and. And then our daughter Zoe passed away accidentally, unexpectedly. You know, the kind of thing where you feel as though that's somebody else's story until it's your story. And we decided to try to do something about what happened to us in an effort to prevent that kind of thing from happening to others, if that was even possible. H. Do you think that that's accurate?
C (2:35)
It sounds right. And for me, I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, moved to New York, practiced law, went into publishing, sold my business back in 2015. You know, my mother was a model. She was very, very devoted to community service. It was very, very important part of her life. And during the years when I was in practicing law and business. I didn't have a lot of time to do a lot of community service. And when Zoe died and, you know, Robert and I tried to decide what we could do to honor Zoe and try to make a change. Make. Make a change to, or help society, help people. We were fortunate enough to meet John Avery and the collaboration with him, which has been evolved over, I guess, the last decade or so, has really been something which, you know, I think Rob and I are very proud of, and we really feel that, you know, as Robin will talk about harm reduction, I really. I really feel we've been fortunate enough to be in a position to save lives.
