It began as a pattern in the data
NorthStar did not begin as a company. It began as a pattern its founders kept seeing in the data: treatment that fails the overwhelming majority of the people who need it, and a system that blames patients instead of the model.
A foundation of 140,000 patients
Long before NorthStar, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Chiodo built and led two of the most influential companies in modern addiction care. In 2009, Dr. Wilson founded CleanSlate Centers, the nation's first physician-led, office-based opioid treatment program, and grew it into a national network of more than 80 centers across 15 states. In 2017, the two co-founded Boulder Care, one of the first national telehealth platforms for opioid use disorder. That scale gave them a deep, validated understanding of what actually keeps people in treatment.
The insight that changed everything
When Dr. Chiodo joined CleanSlate as Director of Research, and the two co-founded the Addiction Research and Education Foundation in 2014, their analysis surfaced a defining insight: sustained engagement in treatment, more than any single medication or intervention, was the strongest predictor of long-term success. People did not need to be sent away for 30 days. They needed to stay connected to care over time. That principle became the backbone of the longitudinal model NorthStar delivers today.
Why alcohol, and why now
By 2020, opioid treatment had evolved. Alcohol treatment had not. Traditional inpatient rehabilitation succeeds for only about 13 percent of patients, detox for fewer than 10 percent, and Alcoholics Anonymous for roughly 8 percent. So the founders set out to build something genuinely different. Before enrolling a single patient, they reviewed more than 2,600 studies across the U.S., U.K., E.U., and Australia, and engineered NorthStar to be anchored in the strongest available evidence at every layer of care.
A career of firsts in addiction medicine
Dr. Wilson is a serial healthcare entrepreneur who has founded and co-founded three pioneering companies in the addiction treatment field. Board-certified in both internal medicine and addiction medicine, she is a nationally recognized leader whose work has helped shape both the science and the delivery of addiction care across the United States.
She trained in internal medicine, completing her residency and serving as Chief Resident at Baystate Medical Center through Tufts University School of Medicine. She became one of the earliest hospitalist physicians in the country and rose to Chief of Medicine. It was in that role, around 2008, that she saw the opioid crisis arriving before the rest of the country did.
Rather than wait for the system to respond, she built the response herself. In 2009 she founded CleanSlate Centers, an approach that moved medication-supported treatment out of tightly regulated clinics and into accessible medical offices. The model was recognized by SAMHSA for its innovation in harm reduction and grew into a national network of more than 80 centers across 15 states, treating 40,000 patients by 2014. In 2017 she co-founded Boulder Care, leading its clinical and scientific development, including federally funded research that helped build the evidence base for virtual addiction care years before telehealth became mainstream.
Today, as the leader of NorthStar, Dr. Wilson holds active medical licenses across 17 states and continues to publish, speak nationally, and advocate for treating addiction as a chronic, treatable medical condition rather than a moral failing.
The dignity of the patient is non-negotiable, and care should adapt to the person, not the other way around.
A scientist who built the tools the field relies on
A developmental psychologist and statistician by training, Dr. Chiodo has spent more than three decades pursuing a central clinical question: who actually needs help, and how do you identify them early enough to intervene? Her work brings scientific rigor to early detection and to reducing the barriers that keep people from care, the same convictions that anchor NorthStar's clinical approach. With more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and a research portfolio funded by the National Institutes of Health, she is the architect of NorthStar's evidence base.
She holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology with a concentration in Statistics from Wayne State University, where her dissertation examined how the timing of prenatal alcohol exposure shapes child development. She completed postdoctoral training under leading researchers in prenatal substance exposure before a faculty career at Wayne State and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned tenure as an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and taught graduate statistics and research methods.
As a principal investigator, co-investigator, and statistician on federally funded studies, she developed and validated screening instruments used to identify risk drinking in pregnancy, tools built around the core challenge of detecting who needs help, and when. Her research has had real work implications influencing addiction-based outcome metrics in several states and evaluating and influencing addiction related policies.
At NorthStar, this scientific foundation found its clinical complement. Dr. Chiodo's rigorous understanding of research methodology and her years studying addiction converged with Dr. Wilson's expertise as a physician board certified in both internal medicine and addiction medicine, and together they translated evidence into practice in a way neither discipline could have achieved alone. Her insistence on measurable, validated outcomes and his command of what recovery actually requires in clinical care shaped a model that is both scientifically grounded and genuinely responsive to the people it serves, the intellectual and clinical partnership at the heart of how NorthStar was built.
Replace the myths and stigma that surround substance use with rigorous science, and give people the private, respectful, evidence-based care they deserve.
The road to NorthStar
CleanSlate Centers founded
Dr. Wilson launches the nation's first physician-led, office-based opioid treatment program.
SAMHSA Science & Service Award
The office-based model is named an inaugural honoree for measurable improvements in patient outcomes.
Research moves to the center
Dr. Chiodo joins as Director of Research; the two co-found the Addiction Research and Education Foundation. CleanSlate reaches 40,000 patients across 80+ centers.
Boulder Care co-founded
One of the first national telehealth platforms for opioid use disorder, proving rigorous addiction care could be delivered without a clinic.
Turning to alcohol
With opioid care evolved but alcohol treatment unchanged, the founders review more than 2,600 studies to engineer a new, evidence-anchored program.
NorthStar founded
Dr. Wilson and Dr. Chiodo launch NorthStar to bring their evidence-anchored, fully virtual model to alcohol use disorder.
Forbes Iconoclast Impact honoree
Dr. Wilson is named an Impact honoree at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit.
World Health Organization FIDES
Dr. Wilson is honored with membership in the World Health Organization's FIDES.
Validated outcomes
NorthStar's December 2025 results: 85.7% of patients meet their goals, with a Net Promoter Score of 88.2.
National recognition
Dr. Wilson is appointed a founding member of the Washington Post Innovation Council on Healthcare.
Not a market opportunity. A response to harm.
This rests on three convictions that guide everything NorthStar does.
Addiction is a medical condition, not a moral failing
Roughly 50 to 60 percent of the risk for alcohol and substance use disorders is genetically influenced, and chronic use produces measurable changes in the brain and body. Treating that biology with medication, nutrition, and structured support is medicine, not ideology. That cycle of shame helps no one, and it is exactly what NorthStar was built to end.
The dignity of the patient is non-negotiable
NorthStar takes its name from a single guiding idea: the patient is the north star. Care is collaborative and judgment-free. There is no concept of doing what you are told, only working together toward goals the patient defines. Treatment adapts to the person. The person does not have to adapt to treatment.
Access is a moral imperative
One patient described calling 72 different offices before she found one that would treat her. That should never happen. NorthStar is fully virtual by design, so a person can heal without leaving their family, their job, or their community, and the founders work directly with insurers and employers to remove cost barriers wherever possible.
Design choices that are direct extensions of their own research
Objective data instead of guesswork
Progress is measured with real-time breath alcohol and biometric monitoring rather than retrospective phone surveys.
Engagement as the engine of success
Sustained engagement predicts outcomes, so care is longitudinal and year-long, extended at no additional cost when a patient needs more time.
Genetics-informed, personalized medicine
Every medication and nutrient plan is guided by the patient's genetic profile through pharmacogenomic testing.
Anonymous peer support people actually use
Virtual-reality support groups, grown from federally funded research, let people connect anonymously through avatars.
A nine-person care team for a chronic condition
Each patient is surrounded by a multidisciplinary team providing medical, psychiatric, behavioral, and peer support.