Pizza is provided. RSVP to Abbi Matzdorff at abigailmatzdorff@arizona.edu    

Dr. Melody Glenn, a University of Arizona associate professor in emergency medicine, a specialist in addiction medicine who serves an attending physician to the large number of drug overdoses and opioid dependent patients who pass through the EDR and in the addiction medicine clinic where many came seeking help and care.  She did not expect to find herself working with so many patients who had substance use disorders when she began her practice in medicine.  Until she began working at a methadone clinic  did she acquired clinical experience and personal insight which helped her to confront misinformation, biases, stigmas to overcome conscious and unconscious beliefs about people struggling with addiction, opioid use disorder and their addiction care.  At the methadone clinic  Dr. Glenn experienced and found support in the belief that effective harm reduction treatments could be more broadly and effectively administered,  setting out to uncover why harm reduction treatments were  not used more widely in addiction medicine towards the better understanding of opioids. 

Dr. Glenn’s effort to uncover the history of methadone began when she learned about Dr Maire Nyswander who (@ 1960-1985)  had defied the medical, legal and administrative (DEA) establishments by her involvement in the development and with advocating for the use of  methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin addiction.  The chronicling of  the stories of two doctors each combating a half-century apart  the opioid epidemic was the result of  Dr. Glenn’s blending of history, memoir, personal insight and research to explore and detail Dr. Nyswander’s noteworthy contributions helping to focus on and better understand opioid addiction and its treatment is found in the Mother of Methadone: A Doctor’s Quest, A Forgotten History, and A Modern Day Crisis. 

Overview from the Publisher: Beacon Press/Boston 

Mother of Methadone is an important chronicle of how stigma, inertia, and ignorance hamper our mental health system- a vital read for understanding both the history and future of addiction care at a pivotal moment for our nation’s health. Carl Erik Fisher, MD, author of  The Urge: Our Story of Addiction

Mother of Methadone takes a sweeping narrative approach to a question that has plagued modern society: When people become addicted to drugs, how can we help them? Dr. Glenn trains her diagnostician eye on the problem, offering a bold model  for readers to confront their own assumptions. Her work will guide us to a new paradigm for care. Margo Steines, author of Brutalities: A Love Story 

Dr. Glenn and Mother of Methadone have been selected to be among the presenting authors and featured titles during the TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS, MARCH 14-15, 2026, at the University of Arizona.