Board of Directors and Regional Representatives

Laura Maguire is Vice President of Educational Partnerships at Mountainside Treatment Center, a licensed substance use and behavioral health treatment provider serving New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. A first-generation college student herself, Laura has spent over 15 years building institutional partnerships rooted in a single belief: that education has the power to change the trajectory of a person’s life. After more than a decade in EdTech partnering with universities to expand access to academic support, peer learning systems, and student success programming, she came to recognize that one of the largest and most underserved student populations was hiding in plain sight. Research shows that nearly 1 in 5 college students meets the criteria for a substance use disorder, yet fewer than 5% ever receive treatment. Students quietly struggling, often unknown to the very systems designed to help them thrive, and too frequently losing their education as a result. That realization brought Laura to Mountainside, where she now leads the Mountainside Learning Institute, working daily alongside school counselors, administrators, peer leaders and faculty to close the gap between treatment providers and educational institutions. While Laura does not have personal lived experience with substance use disorder, her deep empathy for this work is rooted in watching loved ones navigate recovery during her own formative years.

Central to Laura’s work is ensuring that schools are equipped to be true partners in the response, not just referral sources. Educators and counselors are often the first to notice when something has shifted in a student’s life, and Laura is committed to arming them with the most current, clinically informed information on substance use trends and behavioral health. She is equally committed to transforming the way conduct-related incidents are handled on campuses, moving away from punitive, check-the-box responses toward real, individualized solutions that connect students to meaningful support and a genuine path forward.

Central to Laura’s advocacy is a message she brings to every school she partners with, collegiate recovery programs are not just a student support service. They are a student success strategy. Students in recovery demonstrate remarkable academic resilience, higher retention rates, and deep personal purpose. They become peer leaders, campus advocates, and some of the most philanthropically engaged alumni an institution can cultivate. What may appear to be a small, niche program on the surface often has the potential to reach a far greater portion of the student population than schools realize, because the students who need it most are frequently the least visible. When recovery support becomes normalized and accessible, it creates a pathway for students who never would have identified themselves or sought help to finally find their footing.  When schools invest in recovery-supportive infrastructure, they are not simply helping students in crisis, they are developing some of their most committed, compassionate, and driven graduates. Laura is honored to serve on the ARHE board and looks forward to amplifying this message nationally, helping institutions of all sizes see collegiate recovery not as a niche program, but as a cornerstone of a truly student-centered campus culture.