This is the ninth largest voluntary health organization in the United States and the country's major public advocate for the prevention and treatment of alcohol and other drug problems. Working through hundreds of local affiliate councils, state councils, and its New York City and Washington offices, NCADD sponsors prevention and education programs, information and referral services, scientific and clinical consensus development, public policy advocacy, and other related activities.

NCADD was established in 1944 as the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism. As the organization grew, its name and scope enlarged. It became the National Committee on Alcoholism in 1950, was renamed the National Council on Alcoholism in 1957, and assumed its present name in 1990.

The NCADD was the idea of a single individual, Marty Mann; she was its director until her retirement in 1968 and its guiding spirit...