David Best, PH.D. – Thought Leader, Recovery Capital

Professor of Criminology in the Department of Law and Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University and visiting Associate Professor of Addiction Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. Leadership Team of the Recovery Research Institute (RRI).

David Best has an under-graduate degree in psychology with philosophy, a Masters degree in criminology and a PhD in the psychology of addictions. He has authored three books on addiction recovery and has written more than 170 peer-reviewed publications and around 70 book chapters and technical reports.

Previous employers include the Institute of Psychiatry (Kings College London), Strathclyde University, Birmingham University, the National Treatment Agency and the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit.

His current research activities are around:

• recovery pathways

• recovery capital and its measurement

• social identity theory and its implications for recovery

• recovery and desistance

• addiction treatment effectiveness particularly in prison settings

• mentoring

David currently leads a multi-site collaboration on recovery pathways from Therapeutic Communities in Australia, and is the Principal Investigator on a European project on recovery models and philosophies in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.

David lives in Sheffield and has an eight-year old son called Billy.