Hazelden Betty Ford Appoints Next Chief Medical Officer

The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation this week announced its next chief medical officer. Alta DeRoo, MD, becomes the first female CMO in the organization’s 72-year history. Dr DeRoo will succeed longtime CMO Marvin Seppala, MD, who announced his retirement in July after 25 years in the position.

Dr DeRoo also represents the first executive appointment during the tenure of Joseph Lee, MD, who became Hazelden Betty Ford’s first physician CEO in June.

Dr DeRoo’s promotion takes effect on Nov. 11, as she is elevated from the role of medical director for Hazelden Betty Ford’s 3 California locations. She has been working day-to-day in Rancho Mirage, but will move to Minnesota near Hazelden Betty Ford’s headquarters in mid-2022.

Dr DeRoo is a distinguished fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She served as a flight officer in the US Navy, and during a pair of deployments on aircraft carriers, led 40 missions on a combat control aircraft. Dr DeRoo went on to become an obstetrician-gynecologist (OB/GYN), and eventually took on other assignments, including a humanitarian mission in the South Pacific and a National Institutes of Health fellowship.

Before retiring from the Navy in 2016, Dr DeRoo earned a board certification in addiction medicine and developed expertise in treating pregnant women with opioid use disorder. She went on to serve at the University of Virginia’s Culpepper Hospital and several other clinics before joining Hazelden Betty Ford.

Dr DeRoo tells BHE that her experience will help continue Hazelden Betty Ford’s medically focused approach to treating substance use disorders.

“When people are using drugs, it takes a toll on the body—the brain, the heart, the bloodstream, the liver, the kidneys,” Dr DeRoo says. “The drugs used have a systemic consequence on the physiology of the body. I think my heavy medical and surgical knowledge can contribute to treatment, and the leadership part is always helpful when you’re leading an organization like this.

“My goal would be to continue on this medical legacy that Dr Seppala has set forth and to combine with our first physician CEO, Joseph Lee, where we see continuing to treat substance use disorders as a major health crisis and being able to bring this into mainstream medicine. Doing that will help us decrease the stigma others may have. … As we learn more about addiction, we find that this is truly a disease of the brain that goes on to affect the whole body. I want to carry forward this innovative treatment of substance use disorders with medicine and non-medical approaches.”

Dr DeRoo says as chief medical officer, she also hopes to explore ways that Hazelden Betty Ford can extend its relationship with patients beyond their time in residential treatment to better help them sustain recovery.

“I would really like to branch out so we can stay in their lives in recovery for months and years, not just the initial treatment,” she says.

Photo provided by Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.