Dr. Lawrence Mendel retired from correctional medical care in 2018 after more than 30 years in the field. During his time in corrections he served in a number of roles including state medical director, facility medical director, and staff physician in a wide range of facilities. In 2005 he trained to prescribe buprenorphine and subsequently worked with pregnant incarcerated patients with substance use issues. In 2017 he received additional training in addiction medicine and became board certified in the field in 2022. After retirement from corrections, he began work with a large, full service, community-based addiction treatment organization. In that capacity, he admitted and managed patients in the withdrawal management unit in addition to providing outpatient care to opioid treatment program patients and coordinating rotations for medical students until his retirement in December of 2022.