AUGUSTA – Bill Lowenstein, associate director of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Substance Abuse, was recently elected president of the National Prevention Network. It includes state agency substance abuse prevention leaders from throughout the country.

He has been Maine’s representative in the network for the past eight years, and has been chairman of the NPN Research Committee for the past six years.

Lowenstein has worked in the field of substance abuse for the last 20 years, and has provided training and technical assistance regarding tobacco, alcohol and other drug issues locally, regionally and nationally. He obersees Maine’s substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, substance abuse services in the correctional system, and Maine’s impaired driving program.

Lowenstein is a past president and current board member for the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Lewiston, and serves as a board member for the New England Institute of Addiction Studies. He has also co-facilitated a support group for adult male sexual assault survivors for the past six years.

Previously, Lowenstein worked as a child protective worker and supervisor for the state of Maine. Prior to working for the state, he was a medical social worker at Central Maine Medical Center.

He lives in Auburn.