Curriculum Author’s Bio
Circle Tree Ranch
Biography — Naya Arbiter
Ms. Naya Arbiter is the principal of Extensions, LLC, a consulting group, that she founded. Ms. Arbiter has provided consulting and training to 22 state agencies and to professionals in human services. Simultaneously, she has continued her ground-breaking work in developing specialized curricula for populations who have been ignored or underserved.
Ms. Arbiter’s career spans over four decades during which she has developed services for pregnant addicts; addicted mothers and their children; teens with histories of chronic addiction, criminality, and violence; IDVU’s and crack users at high risk of HIV infection; adolescent and adult addicts with lengthy histories of criminality and violence; and incarcerated substance abusers. She is nationally and internationally recognized for her ability to develop new restorative paradigms and practices for adults and adolescents, men and women who have been marginalized.
Ms. Arbiter was one of 125 national experts on drug abuse selected by President Regan in 1987 to serve as a conferee to the White House Conference for a Drug-Free America. She played a key role in the development of the conference recommendations on drug abuse treatment for the President and Congress. Ms. Arbiter has presented on adolescent drug use, prevention, and treatment; cultural competence and has published articles on substance abuse in the Journal of Adolescent Research, American Jails, and the International Journal of Addictions, as well as contributing several chapters to books on these topics.
Early in 1990, Ms. Arbiter gave testimony regarding Drug Treatment in the Criminal Justice System to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources under the Chair of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Later in 1990, she was published in the United States Congressional Record, 101st Congress, Second Session on the topic of services to addicted women. She was also a member of the Inter-American Commission on Drug Policy, which made recommendations to all governments in the Western Hemisphere on a comprehensive drug policy.
Ms. Arbiter has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences and is called on frequently to speak about the culture of violence and degradation in which addicted women find themselves.
Ms. Arbiter has developed a comprehensive written curriculum for a six-month residential therapeutic community for male and female adult substance abusers with extensive criminal histories who are under criminal justice (probation or parole) supervision. She and her company are currently providing staff training for several organizations, including three who work intensively with criminal justice populations: Center Point, Inc. (San Rafael, California); Amity Circle Tree Ranch and the Amity Foundation overall. She is also providing training for states and jurisdictions developing modified curriculum-based therapeutic community interventions in correctional settings.