About the Author
Richard Capriola
Richard Capriola spent 11 years working as an addictions counselor for Menninger Clinic in Houston Texas before retiring in 2019. Menninger Clinic is one of the top ten psychiatric hospitals in the United States and specializes in the assessment, stabilization and treatment of adults and adolescents with substance abuse and psychiatric disorders. During his tenure there he worked in the Adolescent Treatment program and the adult Comprehensive Psychiatric Assessment and Stabilization program. Working closelywith psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and nurses he was responsible for comprehensive assessments and individual and group counseling with patients diagnosed with substance use disorders.
His job with Menninger Clinic was a second career. Prior to joining Menninger, he spent 30 years working for the Illinois State Board of Education where he was a lobbyist, communications and external relations manager andspecial assistant to the State Super intendent of Education. After retiring from the State of Illinois in 2004 he worked as a mental health crisis counselor in central Illinois until he joined Menninger in 2008.
He has had two long and successful professional careers despite having never finished high school. He dropped out during his junior year, but then went on to compete two years of study at a community college in Rockford, Illinois by the time he should have graduated from high school.
He transferred to Western Illinois University in Macomb Illinois and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1971 and won an Illinois General Assembly Internship. He went on to earn two Master’s Degrees, one in Business Administration in 1981 and another in Human Services with a concentration in substance abusein 2004. Both degrees are from the University of Illinois.
Now retired, he lives with his wife in Katy, Texas, a suburb of Houston. He enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with family who live in Texas and on both coasts. He has one son, two stepchildren and four grandchildren.