Obituary: David Patterson Silver Wolf

We remember Dr David Patterson Silver Wolf. He was a Brown School Associate Professor and important member of the Indigenous community at the Washington University. An Irish/Cherokee descendent, David’s research focused on two main areas: substance abuse recovery and advocating for underrepresented minority college students, especially those from American Indian/Alaska Native populations.

David was kind, with a brilliant smile and a subversive sense of humor. He did not stand on ceremony or pay much attention to hierarchy –he invited conversation and made those he interacted with feel seen on a deeply personal level. David did not suffer nonsense or what he perceived as unnecessary bureaucracy. Rather, he built a life dedicated to improving the lives of others.

David was the first tenured professor of Native descent at the Brown School. In his work with the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, he supported the Buder Center and mentored Buder scholars. “His impact with the Buder Center is far-reaching and powerful,” said Mary McKay, Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School (M. McKay, personal communication, May 27, 2021). “He was an invaluable mentor for Indigenous students and a great advocate for Indigenous peoples. We want to acknowledge and express gratitude for all of his many contributions to our community,” said Kellie Thompson, director of the Buder Center (K. Thompson, personal communication, May 27, 2021).

David was passionate about bringing evidence-based approaches to substance-disorder treatment. He served as the chief research officer for the Community Academic Partnership on Addiction Clinic, a partnership between the Brown School and Preferred Family Healthcare. David hoped the unique partnership model would be replicated by university hospitals and medical schools. He realized that there was a dearth of hard data to guide addiction treatment and behavioral health professionals – the treatment and recovery process is monitored exclusively on a therapist’s intuition. David knew this from his 15 years of experience providing such services.

This led him to co-found Takoda and create PsychoSocial Sync. The performance dashboard tool displays key, real-time performance indicators that enable therapists to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment interventions and recovery progress. The dashboard, which includes mobile apps, was implemented under David’s leadership in partnership with addiction treatment providers in the St Louis region. After clinicians were trained to use the dashboard, they saw an 11% increase in addiction treatment completion rates over 6 months (Staff, Institute of Clinical & Translational Sciences, 2021).

Recently, a multi-disciplinary team at Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences published a new case study highlighting the dashboard’s impact, under the leadership of Professor Doug Luke. David’s latest book coming out later this year, “The New Addiction Treatment” (Patterson Silver Wolf, 2021), discusses addiction treatment and the surrounding industry from the perspective of both a patient and a treatment provider.

One prong of his research centered on social-belonging interventions for minority college students. David noted that research showed college graduates had greater overall health, a brighter outlook on life and other benefits that they passed on to their children. But with a drop-out rate of approximately 30%, minority students can miss out on these benefits (Patterson Silver Wolf et al., 2017). He tested the effectiveness of a structured introduction via a 13-minute video, “You Are College Material—You Belong,” followed by group discussion, among students at St Louis Community College-Forest Park (Patterson Silver Wolf et al., 2017). The results he published demonstrated the power of community. “The college culture and traditions oftentimes conflict with minority culture and traditions. Further, when there are feelings of a lack of belonging, small things, like being ignored or getting a poor grade, can cause those feelings to increase. These seemingly small acts can result in the decision to drop out, which has huge consequences,” said David (D. Patterson Silver Wolf, personal communication, November 29, 2017).

This conversation was personal for him. In the monograph “An Education Saved My Life,” David shares how he navigated a difficult family life, educational challenges, and addiction with the support of a foundational community and the pursuit of higher education (Patterson Silver Wolf, 2015). He believed any student could thrive in a college setting as long as they were able to create a sense of ‘belongingness’ in spite of perceived flaws. “The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people; it is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire other people’s good qualities,” (Patterson Silver Wolf, 2015, p. 34).

David was 57 when he passed away on May 14, 2021. He was surrounded by his loving family.