Melody M. Heaps
President Emeritus
Melody Heaps founded TASC in 1976 and led it to become a nationally recognized agency before she retired as president in 2009. She is currently president emeritus and a consultant to TASC.
Under Ms. Heaps’ leadership, the agency grew from a small pilot program in Cook County, Illinois, to a $20 million, statewide organization providing direct services to 25,000 individuals annually.
Ms. Heaps began her professional career during the civil rights movement, as a community organizer for the Chicago City Missionary Society, now the Community Renewal Society. She later joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s staff during the Chicago Campaign. In her work on issues of housing, employment, and economic empowerment, Ms. Heaps witnessed the toll that the growing illicit drug problem was taking on individuals, families, and entire communities. From these roots grew a lifelong professional commitment to applying public health and safety solutions to the complex and interrelated issues of drugs, poverty, and crime.
A recognized leader in building comprehensive and collaborative public policy solutions, Ms. Heaps offers her expertise nationally and internationally. In addition to serving as a delegate to “Beyond 2008,” the global NGO (Non Governmental Organization) forum to the United Nations General Assembly’s Special Session on Illicit Drugs, Ms. Heaps’ contributions have been instrumental in guiding and developing major national initiatives. Beginning in 1999, she chaired the steering committee for HHS/SAMHSA’s (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) “Partners for Recovery” initiative. She also helped develop and implement NIDA’s (National Institute on Drug Abuse) judicial training curriculum and organized the first national Managed Care and Criminal Justice Conference.
Ms. Heaps has provided consultation services for numerous private and public agencies including the U.S. Department of State, INL (Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs); U.S. Department of Justice, BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) and NIJ (National Institute of Justice); and the NASADAD (National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors). Her appointments to committees and councils over the years have included the National Advisory Council for HHS/SAMHSA/CSAT (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment) as well as the Drug Control Research, Data, and Evaluation Committee of the White House ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy).
In Illinois, Ms. Heaps’ leadership has played a key role in the development and expansion of community-based treatment alternatives and nationally recognized program models throughout the state. She has been appointed to task forces and strategic teams under multiple Governors, most recently as an executive committee member of the Illinois Governor’s Community Safety & Reentry Working Group and co-chair of the group’s Health & Behavioral Health Subcommittee. Ms. Heaps has also served on the Illinois Advisory Council on Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependency and the Chicago Bar Association Committee to End Recidivism.
Over her professional career, Ms. Heaps has sat on numerous boards of directors; taught for the National Institute of Corrections Training Academy, Chicago State University, Governors State University, and the National Judicial College; and received many awards and honors. In 2008, she was awarded the National TASC Association President’s Award and the SAAS (State Associations of Addiction Services) Excellence in Leadership Award.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Ms. Heaps received the university’s prestigious Service to Society award in 1995. She has co-written a number of published articles, including Recovery-Oriented Care for Drug-Abusing Offenders in 2009, Toward a Recovery-Oriented System of Care Within the Criminal Justice System in 2008, Toward a Rational Drug Policy: Setting New Priorities in 1994, and Making the Connection: Substance Abuse and the Use of Intermediate Punishments in 1992.
