Drug Policy Forum of Texas
Speakers’ Bureau
DPFT’s goal is to promote open debate and discussion about how to have a more effective, less costly drug policy. We have outstanding speakers across Texas who help us do this.
From the Southeast Texas area:
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Jerry Epstein holds degrees from Rice University and the University of Houston . He served as an officer in the US Marines Corps. He is a businessman and writer who has extensively researched drug policy options. In 1995 he joined with Dr. Alan Robison, the retired Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston to form the Drug Policy Forum of Texas to promote discussion of scientific information about drugs and effective alternatives to a failed drug war. |
| William Martin, Ph.D. taught criminology for 35 years. He has chaired the Department of Sociology and at Rice University and is a Senior Fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Bill has written six books, including A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story. He is writing a book on drug policy for religious and social conservatives. Bill has given hundreds of talks about public policy issues, including drug abuse and drug policy. |  |
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Carl Veley is a petroleum engineer and management consultant. He lived for several years in various Middle Eastern, European and Asian countries and has observed a spectrum of drug control policies ranging from unrestricted distribution to total prohibition. Carl is a DPFT board member whose essays on drug policy have been published widely, including in the Wall Street Journal. He is the current president of DPFT. |
| From the Central Texas area: | |
| Michael J. Gilbert, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He teaches a course titled “Drugs, Drug Laws and Crime.” Before joining the university faculty, Dr. Gilbert had over 20 years of experience in corrections and criminal justice. Working with offenders and justice system officials he became aware of the adverse consequences of the “war on drugs”. He began to question the validity, morality, and practicality of drug prohibition. The more he studied the problem the less prohibition made sense. Mike also represents Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc |  |
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Russ Jones worked in professions related to illegal drugs for over 30 years. He has been a narcotics detective in San Jose, California, a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer and an observer in Latin America during the Nicaraguan Contra conflict. Russ has conducted studies of the impact of drug abuse on crime and has written and taught drug rehabilitation courses for court mandated clients. He has been recognized as an expert in the psychological and physiological effects of drugs by both state and federal courts. Russ also represents Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc. |
| Craig Schroer is a reference librarian at the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. He brings his skills as an information professional to the field of drug policy reform where he has served on the DPFT board. He is keenly interested in the disconnect between evidence-based drug policy and the punitive model whichcontinues to prevail |  |
| From the North Texas area: | |
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Alan and Nancy Bean (shown with daughter, Lydia) spent twenty years serving Baptist and Methodist congregations in Western Canada, Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas. They moved to Tulia with their three children in 1998. In the wake of the infamous Tulia drug sting Alan helped found Friends of Justice, a criminal justice reform organization. His work has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Alan served as President of DPFT in 2004. He moved to the DFW area in 2007. Alan also represents Friends of Justice, http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/ |
| Dr. Rodney Pirtle holds numerous degrees including one from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He is retired from Highland Park ISD where he became aware that kids can get illicit drugs in the black market easier than they can get beer. He has devoted years to determining how we can do better. Rod is the recipient of a “Distinguished Service Award” from Highland Park ISD. He served as president of DPFT in 2003. |  |
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Suzanne Wills is a retired CPA. She graduated from SMU and had her own practice in east Dallas for 16 years. She is a board member and treasurer of DPFT and Drug Policy Chair of the League of Women Voters of Dallas. Her talk is entitled “Drug War: How We Got Into This Mess and the Special Interests That Keep Us Here.” It is accompanied with a Power Point slide show. It can be presented in from 18 to 45 minutes or as two separate talks. |
| From the West Texas area: | |
| Keith Jones is an Elder Lawyer in Amarillo. He has practiced law since 1975, first in Dallas and since 1979 in Amarillo. He is member of Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and volunteers for a number of organizations in the Amarillo area |  |
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Rev. Charles Kiker was born and grew up in the Tulia area. He earned degrees from Wayland Baptist College and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. After a 40 year career Dr. Kiker retired in Tulia in 1999, just before the infamous Tulia drug sting. The injustice of that event led this socially conservative Baptist minister to the drug policy reform movement. Charles has been a valued member of the DPFT since 2000. |
Contact Suzanne Wills to schedule a speaker for your group.
suzy@dpft.org or 214-324-1594 in Dallas, 877-667-1888 toll free