Dr. Davida Coady
April 15, 1938 – May 3, 2018
Physician, Activist and Founder of Options Recovery Services
The Options family – board, staff, supporters, clients, and the thousands of graduates over the past 21 years, from the streets of Berkeley and Oakland and across the state prison system – mourns the passing of our founder and guiding light, Dr. Davida Coady. We find comfort in the words of one graduate: “Dr. Coady never gave up on people, even after they gave up on themselves.” Our grief only spurs our resolve to continue Davida’s vision of reaching out to the poor and imprisoned in finding the path to life-affirming sobriety and service.
With Davida’s husband, Options Executive Director Tom Gorham, an Options-centered celebration of her life will immediately follow the graduation ceremony of June 1, 2018. In her loving memory, we will do what Davida loved most – share stories of pain, recovery and hope. And as Tom says, “Options is here to stay. The work to serve the unserved will go on.”
Davida Coady, MD, founder of Options Recovery Services and lifelong advocate for addiction treatment and recovery, tells her inspiring story in a new paperback available for purchase online from Hesperian Health Guides. In her final months, Davida finished her memoir The Greatest Good detailing her wide-ranging life in the service of health, justice and achieving “the greatest good for the greatest number of people.”
Purchase The Greatest Good through Hesperian Health Guides: https://store.hesperian.org/prod/The_Greatest_Good.html
Make a donation to Options Recovery Services in honor of Davida’s life of service: https://www.givedirect.org/donate/?cid=6002
For 20 years, Dr. Coady was first on the ground for global humanitarian crises: Biafra, Bangladesh, Peru, Honduras. Back home she built the Venice Family Clinic into the largest free clinic in America, helped Cesar Chavez establish a new health system for farm workers, marched alongside Dan Berrigan, Pete Seeger, and Martin Sheen, was arrested 50 times, created the first drug court in the Bay Area, and built a drug treatment program that houses and treats thousands of clients every year. Deeply human, flawed and glorious, Davida relates an inspirational life richly and well-lived, driven by the motto: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number of People.