One Professor’s Journey from Prison to PhD: An Interview with Dr. Noel Vest

When Professor Noel Vest speaks about addiction recovery, his words carry the weight of both personal experience and academic expertise. As an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health, Vest draws deeply on his lived experience to guide his teaching of substance use and addiction recovery. As a formerly incarcerated scholar and survivor of drug and alcohol use disorder, he has transformed personal hardship into a mission that unites research, education, and social change.

The catalyst to Vest’s recovery began in an unlikely place: prison. “It’s very difficult to enter into long-term recovery at any point in your life, but I think I was lucky,” he says. The prison he was in did not have any kind of accessible addiction treatment, but it offered two specific programs that created a “recovery-friendly environment” for Vest. He recalls first attending an Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous meeting “kicking and screaming, not wanting to go at all.” But after just two months, he had found a home there.

He had made up his mind; he wanted to go back to school once released.

Vest also attended the facility’s college program, which offered him a sense of purpose and hope amidst life in prison. “It allowed me to see the opportunity for a career when I got out,” he says. “It gave me hope that being in recovery wouldn’t just lead to this life of destitution and being homeless.” His family remained a supportive pillar throughout his recovery, sending him well-wishes and books to supplement his education.

Despite making progress with recovery, life in prison was also hard on Vest. “The most challenging aspect is the dehumanization,” he reflects, revealing how prison was often a cruel, violent place and how treatment from correctional officers and staff clouded his self-worth. Amid the daily hardships, education became his sanctuary—the one space where people treated him like a human being. He had made up his mind; he wanted to go back to school once released.

But challenges to reentry quickly arose. Finding stable housing proved nearly impossible with a felony conviction, and employment opportunities were limited. He secured his first job as a drug and alcohol counselor after a lengthy appeals process, but quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit. Having never been to treatment himself, Vest felt he lacked the lived experience to form the kind of “therapeutic alliance” he hoped for with patients. And the idea of surveilling clients for treatment compliance and reporting violations to the justice system was uncomfortable to him, especially since he was still on parole at the time.

That discomfort eventually led him towards research, motivating him to critically examine the systems that shape addiction recovery. Vest had started his bachelor’s degree at a local Washington State University satellite campus, near where he had attended community college. One particular conversation with a professor changed the trajectory of his education: “[She] sparked this idea that I could get involved in research and that I could potentially go to graduate school.” He swiftly joined her research lab, where he nurtured a passion for empirical evidence and research and forged a path towards a scholarly career.

Vest went on to earn his PhD in experimental psychology from Washington State University. He recounts the full-circle moment of his academic journey when he published his first authored paper. “I think I smiled for a week,” Vest reminisces. By the final year of his Ph.D., he had merged his experiences with mental health, addiction, and recovery into a cohesive, personal research identity.

From prison to PhD, Vest serves as an inspiration to those rebuilding their lives after incarceration, proving that anything is possible.

Professor Vest has now published over 30 peer-reviewed research articles with his unique perspective, dedicating his research to addiction recovery, prison reentry, and mental health to inform public policy. For instance, after noticing a gap in the literature on collegiate recovery programs, he initiated a research project to examine campus-based support networks for students in recovery across the U.S. and Canada. His recent publication in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs also reveals how all-recovery meetings—which are open to individuals seeking support for any form of addiction—were the most common form of peer support, reflecting the growing diversity of recovery paths. This research provides schools with “real evidence that this is not just a student group, it’s actually a very meaningful intervention for universities to invest in to improve student wellness.”

Beyond academia, Professor Vest continues to advocate for social justice and systemic change. As board secretary for Civil Survival, a Seattle-based nonprofit supporting formerly incarcerated individuals, he works to dismantle the barriers to reentry he once faced. And throughout his work, he remains keenly aware of the stigma that still shadows addiction and incarceration. He knows he doesn’t speak for everyone who’s been through recovery or prison, “because [he knows] that their experiences are different.” Still, he strives to lead with his own experiences and humanize the conditions that shaped his own life.

Professor Vest’s journey is living proof that lived experience, compassion, and evidence can all have a place in shaping better systems. From prison to PhD, Vest serves as an inspiration to those rebuilding their lives after incarceration, proving that anything is possible.

This is the second piece in a three-part series on substance use disorder and treatment. Read part one here.