Sarah B. Coughlin, MSW '07
Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

Sarah B. Coughlin, LICSW, LADC-I is a zealous advocate for criminal justice reform, for health equity, for the use of science-based approaches to drug use and addiction, and for dismantling the systemic factors at the foundation of both racial and economic inequities. She currently works for Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Community Health Improvement overseeing a multisector coalition aimed at addressing social determinants of health. She has a private therapy practice in Boston, MA and serves as a social work expert for state and federal defense attorneys where she provides comprehensive aid in sentencing reports, clinical and substance use assessments, re-entry plans, as well as expert testimony at criminal trials, violation hearings, and child protection cases. In her most recent work, she also leads Transformational Prison Project’s newly formed Center for Wellness and Restoration.

Throughout her career, Sarah has been at the forefront of the systemic shift from reactive and punitive to preventative and restorative policy and has a long track record of implementing and advocating for harm reduction practices. She created a youth enrichment program aimed at increasing youth protective factors which is now a diversion program for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. She helped develop the addiction track treatment groups for the Metro Boston Department of Youth Services (DYS) and created an alternative to suspension program at Charlestown High School for students with chronic marijuana use which is being replicated across the district. She helped create the Charlestown Division of the Boston Municipal Court’s Recovery Court and has been honored by the Boston Red Sox for her work in addiction. In 2019, she was appointed by the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services to serve on the taxonomy commission to review evidenced-based treatments for individuals with substance use disorders, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders.  She provides regular trainings throughout the state for lawyers, social workers, school systems, universities, and addiction/mental health professionals.

Ngozi Enelamah, MSW '18, PhD '20
Distinguished Recent Alumni Award Recipient

Ngozi Victoria Enelamah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at the College of Health and Human Services, University of New Hampshire. Her multidisciplinary research and scholarship focus on culturally grounded, evidence-based, task-shifting, and transdiagnostic approaches to interventions for mental health disparities in the maternal and child dyad and among sub-Saharan African, Black US-born, immigrant, and refugee families. Her research addresses intergenerational risk, resilience, and protective factors for mental well-being and functioning in conflict settings and minority health across the life course. Dr. Enelamah has an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, an MBA from the University of Lagos, an Ed.M. from Harvard University, and her MSW and Ph.D. from Boston College. Dr. Enelamah has over two decades of macro practice, community, and public health professional experience that have helped to address social issues and strengthen health systems. 

Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H.

Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H. is the inaugural Chief Community Health and Equity Officer at Mass General Brigham and Executive Director of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. She leads system-wide strategies to improve health equity and the health of the communities served by Mass General Brigham. She is a pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Conrad Taff Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School, and a Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 

Dr. Taveras is a leading expert in community health equity, childhood obesity, maternal-child health, and health disparities. Her research and community health leadership have influenced the development of national programs to improve health outcomes and eliminate inequities for socially at-risk populations. She is a recipient of the Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachusetts Association of Public Health for her work improving health and health care in community-based settings.

Dr. Taveras received her Bachelor of Science and medical degrees from New York University and completed her internship, residency, and chief residency at the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital and holds an MPH from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.