Emily Birckhead

Emily Birckhead is the executive director of the West Virginia Alliance of Recovery Residences, which has been tasked with implementing nationally accepted best practice standards and ethical guidelines for non-treatment residential recovery houses in the state.  She graduated from WVU with her BS in Political Science and received her Master of Social Work Degree from Marshall University in 2020. She is certified as both a CCAR Peer Recovery Coach and 200-RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher). Emily has previously worked as a Recovery Coach with the Partnership of African American Churches and as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Try This WV. She has also supported the development of organizations like WVU’s Collegiate Recovery Program and WV Recovers, an integrated, statewide peer recovery network for people with mental health and substance use disorders. Emily serves on the Board of Directors for the Kanawha Pastoral Counseling Center (KPCC) and the West Virginia Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (WVAADC).