Franklin James Cook, MA, CPC, is a director at SADOD and has been a Health Care and Safety Expert Consultant for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health since 2012. He has been a Peer Grief Helper since 1999. Franklin managed the three pilot projects that were the foundation for SADOD. He and the other directors, Glen and Tanya Lord, developed the RIVER model and are devoted to sharing it with peer grief support workers everywhere. He began working with the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services in 2017 to help people in the aftermath of opioid overdose and other drug-alcohol-related fatalities. Franklin co-led the blue-ribbon panel that developed national guidelines for community-based grief support after suicide. He served on the Board of Directors of SPAN USA (Suicide Prevention Action Network) and The Alliance of Hope and on the national advisory group of people with lived experience for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Franklin is a member of all three populations served by SADOD: people grieving the death of a loved one due to drug-alcohol use, people in recovery, and direct service providers responding to the overdose crisis.
