The outgoing CEO of the McAlister Institute has spent decades helping people recover from substance abuse
Jeanne McAlister was on a dark and self-destructive path. But something happened on Nov. 23, 1956, sending her off in a different direction that eventually helped many thousands of San Diegans. Born in 1932, McAlister was raised in San Diego. As early as she can remember, she was repeatedly physically abused, often bloodied and injured. “Even today sometimes I go back to that little girl who was beaten and scared,” she said. “I have to pick her up and love her.
'” McAlister has been clean and sober for 68 years, since that day in 1956. In the early 1970s, she met Dr. David Rusk, a psychiatrist whom she describes as innovative and willing to experiment. Rusk hired McAlister to run his drug addiction and alcoholism program. Although she never graduated high school, McAlister had life experiences and attended educational seminars on counseling. “No other program used recovering alcoholics and addicts as counselors at the time,” McAlister said.
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