Meet the Board

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A BOOK...

Barbara Kingsolver

Our nonprofit, Higher Ground, was founded by Barbara Kingsolver and her husband Steven Hopp, southwest Virginia residents, farmers, parents, educators, and community advocates. Barbara is also an author with a long career of writing about the beauty and challenges of Appalachia. 

As the crisis of Opioid Use Disorder spread across our community, heartbroken for the sufferers and orphans of this disease, Barbara hoped to tell the world how this tragedy came to us as part of a history of exploitation by outside interests, including Big Pharma.

Barbara Kingsolver

As the crisis of Opioid Use Disorder spread across our community, heartbroken for the sufferers and orphans of this disease, Barbara hoped to tell the world how this tragedy came to us as part of a history of exploitation by outside interests, including Big Pharma. That story is Demon Copperhead, a novel set in Lee County, Virginia, published in 2022. It became the best-selling novel in America, was translated into dozens of languages, won the Pulitzer Prize, and was voted by U.S. readers as the best book of the 21st Century. Readers the world over have responded with compassion to the struggles of our people and place.

Having drawn on Lee County and our region as source material, Barbara and Steven wanted to give back proceeds of the book to help make a difference. They called together friends and colleagues with first-hand knowledge of addiction treatment and recovery, and Higher Ground was born. Guided by a groundswell of enthusiasm, experience, and hard work from our board members, we created a recovery home in Lee County to provide a supportive environment for women who are turning their lives around. 

Addiction is a disease, cured by treatment and compassion. Repairing lives and families means rebuilding communities. If you purchased and read Demon Copperhead, you’ve already contributed to our project. If you’d like to do more, please explore this website to find out how you can help more families find higher ground. 

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We're Here to Help

Art Van Zee

Dr. Art Van Zee is a primary care physician that has practiced at the St. Charles Clinic since 1976. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine. As a buprenorphine prescriber, he has taken care of patients with opioid use disorder for the last 25 years and has found it to be one of the most meaningful things he has done in his entire medical career.

Joie Cantrell

Co-Director Joie Cantrell is an RN with 33 plus years of experience in Public Health. She works exclusively with clients who have substance use disorder in Virginia’s first harm reduction program. She is very passionate about helping the community she grew up in. Joie is an advocate for women’s issues and addressing the unique challenges that women face in recovery. She looks forward to the opportunity to make a tangible, positive impact on our guests lives.  

Julie Montgomery-Barber

I was raised in Lee County. Though I moved away for several years, I came back because this is home. After working as a counselor in the regional jail for more than seven years, I came to realize just how dire the drug and addiction situation is in Lee County and how desperately help is needed. This is the first step, of what I hope to be many, in the right direction and I am truly honored to be serving on this board that will hopefully help and uplift many!

Jane Fogleman

I am a Certified Legal Assistant and have worked for a local attorney since January of 2011. From my sobriety date of December 08, 2005, it has been a dream of mine to be a part of a place to help others as I was once helped. A safe place for women to “get on their feet” and see that there is Hope for their future.

Sue Ella Kobak, Esq.

Ms. Kobak has been a school teacher, community activist, and for 35 years an attorney. She raised her family in Lee County and resides there with her husband. For 25 years, she has been involved in the opioid crisis, always advocating for services and treatment for those individuals with substance use disorder.

Dr. Kristen Westover

Dr. Westover has been the President of Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap since July 2017. Prior to this role, she served as Vice President for Academic and Student Development Services at Patrick & Henry Community College in Martinsville, Virginia for six years.

Dr. Kristen Westover

Dr. Westover also contributed to the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin as a Program Coordinator for the national initiatives leadership team and was the Project Director for the STATWAY™ initiative, a joint project with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Her career includes serving as the Director of Technical Programs and Curriculum at the Kansas Board of Regents and as Vice President of Academics at Colby Community College in Northwest Kansas, where she also taught in the mathematics department. Additionally, Dr. Westover has ten years of experience teaching high school mathematics and coaching at the middle school level.

Dr. Westover has played a key role in numerous curriculum and assessment projects at both college and state levels. She was honored as an Inaugural Aspen Institute Presidential Fellow in 2016 and is an alumnus of the LEAD Virginia class of 2013. Her dissertation research focused on developmental education, college readiness, placement exams, and the success of students in developmental education courses at community colleges.

Dr. Westover holds an Associate of Science from Colby Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Science in Instructional Technology from Fort Hays State University, and a Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

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Rev. Nancy Hobbs

Rev Nancy Hobbs is a native Lee Countian and has lived here her entire life. She taught in the Lee County school system and is retired from the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. She served in Lee, Scott, and Wise counties.

Adrian Thacker

Adrian Thacker is a nurse practitioner, board certified as an addiction specialist through the Addictions Nursing Certification Board (ANCB) and the American Academy of Healthcare Providers in the Addictive Disorders. 

Adrian Thacker

He has dedicated his career as a nurse practitioner to providing quality, compassionate care to individuals who suffer from substance use disorders.

Adrian lives and works in rural Southwest Virginia, an area devastated by the opioid epidemic. He is grateful to serve on the board of directors of Higher Ground with such a wonderful group of individuals who share a common goal of promoting the safety and well-being of the community.

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