Congresswoman Carol Miller Receives the 2025 Legislator of the Year Award

The 2025 Addiction Policy Forum Pillar Legislator of the Year is awarded to Congresswoman Carol Miller.

The Legislator of the Year Award is granted annually to Members of Congress who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to improving our nation’s response to the addiction crisis.

Congresswoman Carol Miller has demonstrated sustained leadership in supporting evidence-based substance use disorder (SUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Congresswoman Miller's solutions to the addiction crisis center on family and education, emphasizing the importance of educating children and providing them with the resources they need to make responsible decisions related to drugs and alcohol. She has also been an instrumental advocate for increasing the number of medical students and medical providers who can prescribe medications to treat opioid use disorder, which in turn has expanded the number of patients who can receive evidence-based treatment. 

Throughout her more than a decade of service in the West Virginia House of Delegates and her tenure in Congress, Congresswoman Miller has championed legislation to advance evidence-based criminal justice reform policies and practices that focus on reducing recidivism and improving access to substance use disorder treatment. 

While serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2012, Congresswoman Miller was an integral part of implementing the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) in West Virginia, a federal program that provides small grants to help states harness the power of data to confront urgent criminal justice challenges head-on. As a result of the JRI analysis and recommendations, West Virginia invested $11.1 million to support the expansion of substance use treatment and services for individuals on probation, parole, and drug court supervision. The expansion of local Day Report Centers ensured coordination across the various behavioral health providers and local corrections agencies. 

Since being elected to represent West Virginia’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, Congresswoman Miller has continued to be an unwavering leader of increasing access to substance use treatment by championing the Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2025 in the House, which continues critical recidivism reduction and reentry services nationwide, including substance use disorder treatment.  

Read more about Congresswoman Miller