After graduating from Georgetown University with a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service in 1987, Darleen worked as a financial analyst and advisor for the Central Bank of Norway for 19 years. She was an executive committee member of the bank’s national trade union federation, president of the regional NBFF chapter, and Editor-in-Chief of the national publication, Forbundsnytt.

Concurrently, Darleen was the administrative director of an intensive care daycare/preschool, served on the town council and its executive board, the school committee, the preschool committee and numerous other boards, committees, ad-hoc and project groups. She has published articles, guest spoken at conferences, and has been a special delegate for numerous civic conventions.

During her 26 years abroad, she lived in Norway, Ireland and Japan, and traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia for professional, academic and personal reasons.

At present, she is a social worker for the Kennedy-Donovan Center, Inc in New Bedford, MA while working on her thesis for her master’s in public administration at Agder University and her thesis for her master’s in management from BI Executive School in Oslo.

Darleen knows all too well the ramification of substance use. She lost her father from a heroin overdose in 1972; her sister from a drunk driving accident in 1990; a close friend from an overdose in 1989; and her partner from a substance-related death in 2011.