About Us

When Joy Jacoby came to Addiction Treatment Forum, it wasn’t from a background in publishing, but, surprisingly, from a 30-year career in real estate. Below is the remarkable story of her transition from RE/MAX real estate broker in suburban Chicago, to publisher and owner of a website devoted to helping patients in medication-assisted treatment.

It all began decades ago, when Joy happened to meet Sue Emerson (AT Forum’s publisher at that time) at a neighborhood restaurant. As weeks and months went by, the two emailed each other and met periodically. Sue often talked with Joy about AT Forum; the idea of a publication about addiction treatment, as a tool for helping people, appealed to Joy, a woman of strong faith.

Joy had long been involved with charitable organizations, working as an active member or serving on boards. She has logged more than 25 years of service at the Long Grove (Illinois) Lions Club.

As often happens to people who help others, Joy’s philosophy turned out to help Joy herself, when personal problems suddenly entered her life: Over a span of several years, she lost her brother David, and several friends, because of addictions.

In the coping process, Joy reacted in a positive way. In 2015 she established a not-for-profit Christian-based organization, Once Was Lost, in loving memory of her brother David, and her mother, Marjorie, who shared Joy’s commitment to helping others. Joy found serving on the board of Once Was Lost to be deeply satisfying—a way to help people understand and accept the fact that others are there to help them; that they are never truly lost, or alone.

During those years, Joy’s friendship with Sue continued to grow. Realizing the depth of Joy’s drive to help people, and her deepening interest in AT Forum, Sue arranged for Joy to succeed her as publisher.

Today, Joy sees her work as publisher/owner of AT Forum, and her commitment to the website, as a way of remembering her brother, her friend Sue, and loved ones she has lost to addictions. But her feelings go beyond that. Being at the helm of AT Forum gives Joy a way to help save patients who are fighting a battle against addiction—and also to help others who are at risk of becoming addicted, and could perhaps be saved through timely, caring intervention.

Alison is a freelance journalist. In addition to writing for AT Forum, she is editor of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, a contributor to Filter, managing editor of the monthlies Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter and Child & Adolescent Psychopharmacology Update. She got her first OTP tour as a journalist from Mark Parrino when he ran an OTP in New York City in the 1980s.

Barbara is an award-winning medical writer and a certified editor in the life sciences (ELS). Her background: independent contractor with more than 40 medical associations, education companies, and pharmaceutical companies. Her projects: monographs, film scripts,  accredited continuing medical educational programs (CMEs) for physicians; six books; and dozens of freelance magazine articles on health, travel, and family topics.

Kristine began developing websites in 1996 and began work on ATForum.com in 2000. In addition to working on other websites, she is a graphic designer and nature photographer.