Matt Bell serves as the president and co-founder of Team Recovery & Midwest Recovery Center and was named the 2017 Mental Health and Recovery Services Board Advocate of the year. After nine years of heroin addiction, multiple arrests, homelessness, three overdoses, and 28 attempts at rehab, Bell has been sober since 2015 and has opened four treatment centers in Lucas County and another in Wood County, developed a diversion program in Perrysburg, and manages 90 employees. Bell has raised over $1.2 million and has returned the investments within one year.

Bell is a graduate of St. Francis de Sales high school and earned an academic / athletic scholarship to the University of Toledo (UT) to play baseball, but an injury sidelined him and he became addicted to the pills prescribed to him. Today, he uses his past and liabilities as assets to help the individuals and families who are now suffering.

Bell has helped the community by speaking to 90 different schools, developing a free 24/7 hotline to find treatment, developing a free family support group at ProMedica Toledo Hospital and Epworth Church, and working closely with the Lucas County Sheriff’s D.A.R.T. Unit.