Addiction expert to deliver second Schirber Lecture of spring semester

Annetta Sanow Sutton will deliver the second Schirber Lecture of spring semester at 8 p.m. Monday, April 24, at the Founders Room (room 170), Quadrangle Building, Saint John’s University. 

Sutton will speak on “Alcohol and Other Drug Addiction: Impact on Students, Families, Communities, Institutions and Health Care (Anyone you Know?).” 

Her lecture is free and open to the public, and is specifically geared to students who are pre-med, or are interested in a health career.  

Sutton, who is the CEO and founder of Five Point Consulting, has been a Midwest-based national speaker with expertise in the areas of addiction, recovery, grief and spirituality for over 35 years. She will discuss the capacities of addiction, recovery, grief and spirituality. 

According to the biography on her website, Sutton was “raised in a law enforcement family on an Indian reservation with personal knowledge of discrimination, domestic violence, addiction and significant losses gave her a familiarity of the fragility in the human person.” As a spiritual counselor she assists others in finding their spiritual core, recovery and processing grief through addiction, trauma, death of a loved one and divorce. 

Sutton’s book, “Catholic Alcoholic: A Witness to Addiction and Redemption,” was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award. It is an autobiographical work of how addiction has touched every area of her life. She quickly adds, “So has recovery.” She continues to work on a sequel to “Catholic Alcoholic” and other research projects. 

Five Point Consulting provides life direction in spirituality, grief, addiction, recovery, relationships and organization. In addition, Five Point specializes in one on one, couples, family and group consulting, speaking, retreats and educational opportunities as well as promoting a healthy, well-rounded life for all individuals. 

The Schirber Endowed Scholarship and pre-med fund at Saint John’s University was established by Martin ’42 and Rose Marie Schirber of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Martin Schirber practiced medicine in Grand Rapids during most of his medical career. A number of their sons also graduated from or attended Saint John's. 

The purpose of this endowed fund is to provide support for a lecture program intended for students in the health sciences but open to all. One lecture focuses on medical ethics from a pro-life perspective and the other focuses on alcoholism and recovery each year.