AUBURN — Gordon Smith, director of Opioid Response in Maine, will be the featured speaker of the Lewiston-Rotary Lunch Club on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Village Inn, 165 High St.

Gordon H. Smith, Esq., was appointed by Gov. Janet Mills as director of Opioid Response in January 2019. Smith reports directly to Mills as part of the Office of Innovation and the Future. He is responsible for coordinating and directing the various aspects of Maine’s response to the opioid crisis, including prescriber education and reduction of opioid prescribing, prevention and treatment of substance use disorder and harm reduction strategies.

Smith stepped down as executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association on Jan. 3, after serving in that position since September 1993. He has had a relationship with MMA dating back to September 1979. He graduated from the University of Maine with the highest distinction in 1973 and from the Boston College Law School, magna cum laude, in 1976. He practiced law before joining the Maine Medical Association as general counsel in 1981. He is a past chairman of the American Society of State Medical Association Counsel, a nationwide group of 140 attorneys representing medical associations.

Smith has also served as chairman of the American Medical Association/State Medical Society Litigation Center, the Maine Health Data Organization and the Advocacy Resource Center of the American Medical Association. He is a former board member and chair of Quality Counts, a former board member of the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership and the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging. Smith is a frequent lecturer for medical groups on various medical legal subjects.

L-A Rotary meets from noon to 1 p.m. every Thursday at the Village Inn. Lunch is available for $14. Guests and visiting Rotarians are welcome.

For more information, visit www.lewistonauburnrotary.org, www.facebook.com/lewistonmainerotary/ or contact Club President Celeste Yakawonis, 207-713-7111.

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