2015 Distinguished Service Award

Seddon Savage, MD MS

Seddon Savage is a clinician, educator, and policy advocate in the fields of addiction medicine and pain medicine. She is medical director of the Chronic Pain and Recovery Center at Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut and director of the Dartmouth Center on Addiction Recovery and Education, a policy and education center at Dartmouth. She is an associate professor of Anesthesiology on the adjunct faculty of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Dr. Savage served as president of the American Pain Society from May 2010–May 2012 and served as president of the New Hampshire Medical Society in 2007. She currently serves as chair of the New Hampshire Governor’s Commission Task Force on Opioids, and has served as a consultant on addiction and pain issues to national organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA), the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse of Columbia University (CASA), the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Centers for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), among others. She chaired the Committee on Pain of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the Liaison Committee on Pain and Addiction (between ASAM, APS and the American Academy of Pain Medicine) each for over 10 years. She is a frequent lecturer on issues at the interface of pain and addiction, including prescription opioid use, misuse, and addiction, and has authored numerous papers and chapters on related topics.

She earned a BA in art history from Barnard College, an MS in human nutrition from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an MD from Dartmouth Medical School. She earned a certificate of added qualification in pain management from the American Board of Anesthesiology in 1984 and is certified in pain medicine by the American Board of Pain Medicine. Dr. Savage is certified in addiction medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) and is an elected fellow of American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).

Dr. Savage lives in New Hampshire with her husband, W. Carl Cooley, a developmental pediatrician who serves as medical director of the Crotched Mountain Foundation and as director of the Center for Medical Home Improvement. They have three grown children. She enjoys hiking, paddling anything that floats, and growing herbs, vegetables, flowers and, most successfully, weeds.

 

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes outstanding and dedicated service to APS.