Biography
Board Member | Treatment Pioneer | Educator & Systems Builder
Dr. Nick Colangelo is a nationally respected leader in the field of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment, with a distinguished career spanning nearly five decades. Since his start as Aftercare Coordinator at Runnell’s Hospital in New Jersey in 1975, Nick has shaped and led some of the most impactful treatment programs in the country—always with a focus on compassionate care, system innovation, and family integration.
Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nick served in pivotal roles as a crisis counselor, detox center director, hospital administrator, and corporate program developer across states including New Jersey, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. His work with LifeMark Corporation and Westgate Hospital in Houston positioned him at the cutting edge of addiction treatment during a formative era.
In 1982, Nick became President of Marworth, a Geisinger-affiliated treatment center established on the historic Scranton family estate in Waverly, PA. There, he built a nationally recognized, 72-bed drug and alcohol program, developed a dedicated 20-bed family residence, and later opened a 60-bed adolescent facility on the Delaware River. By 1989, Marworth was ranked among the top 20 treatment centers in the United States out of over 4,500 programs.
Nick went on to design and launch Tully Hill Treatment Center in Syracuse, NY, before returning to Northeastern Pennsylvania as Vice President and later President & CEO of Clearbrook Inc., where he expanded and modernized their residential programs for adults and adolescents. In 2019, he became CEO of Brookdale Recovery in Swiftwater, PA, helping establish it as a state-of-the-art recovery campus. In addition to his executive leadership, Nick is the co-founder of Families Helping Families, a free educational support initiative serving communities in Scranton, Tunkhannock, Bloomsburg, and Dallas, PA. His advocacy centers on destigmatizing addiction and supporting whole-family healing.
As a speaker, trainer, consultant, and acquisition researcher, Nick has influenced treatment models and systems across the country. He has been a thoughtful voice in the evolving conversation around Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)—offering insight into how attitudes in the recovery community have shifted and how MAT has created life-saving opportunities for individuals once seen as untreatable.
Dr. Colangelo brings to Fellowship House an unparalleled depth of experience, a heart for recovery, and a systems-oriented vision for sustainable, ethical, and human-centered care. His leadership continues to shape the present and future of addiction treatment in America.