Chris Finch

I attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington from 1991 to 1995 and started a major in Psychology. In 2012 to 2013, I attended the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs where I took a few courses to see if completing my degree was something I wanted to pursue. I am now a part of the Advanced Substance Use Disorder Certificate training program (ASUDC) with the College of Social Work as well as working towards a BS in Human Development and Family Studies. The ASUDC is licensure program that is required by the state in order to be a substance use disorder counselor and I will complete in August of this year. I am projected to complete my BS program and graduate in December 2016 and from there I plan to continue with graduate school either in Social Work or in Clinical Mental Health.

My career experience over the past 20 years has primarily been in sales and marketing within the vacation and hospitality industry working for companies such has Starwood's Sheraton and Westin, The Legacy Golf Resort and Hilton Worldwide in premier resort destinations across the United States. The highlight of my career thus far was as a Senior Marketing Manager for Hawaii/Asia Region with Hilton Grand Vacations. During these 20 years, I have been responsible for the recruiting, hiring, training and retaining of performance based employees, exposing me to the complexities of human personalities and giving me the experience of forming trusting relationships and creating climates conducive to personal change. Now I want to use this experience combined with my education in a more personally rewarding way.

In 2010, I lost my younger brother to an oxycodone overdose and since then, I have had a passion to work with those suffering with substance use disorders as well as with their families. In these past years of volunteering and sharing with others, I have seen many incredibly gifted and intelligent people rise from their substance use disorder and become loving, respectable and contributing members of society. Sadly, I have also seen way too often the tragedy this disease of addiction brings. Both the success stories and the tragedies inspire and fuel my desire to work with people and help them find hope and purpose.