Anton C. Bizzell

Anton C. Bizzell, M.D., is an African American physician entrepreneur whose interests include behavioral health, public health, and developing solutions to complex economic, sustainability, and security challenges. He formed a global strategy, technology and consulting company in 2010, The Bizzell Group, leveraging his 25 years of clinical, research, and policy experience. 
== Early life and education ==
Anton Che Bizzell was born January 5, 1970 to Bernard White and Agnes Bizzell-Colden, and grew up in the primarily African American community of James City in New Bern, North Carolina. As a young boy, he delivered daily newspapers to 30 to 40 local business owners in New Bern. He learned from business owners of all races, asking difficult questions that he said fostered his growth.
Dr. Bizzell earned a B.A. in Biology from the University of Virginia and an M.D. from University of Virginia School of Medicine. He completed his post-graduate residency in family medicine at Howard University Hospital.
== Career and business ==
Dr. Bizzell began his public sector career as a Medical Officer for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health, where he worked to increase screening for alcohol misuse in primary care practices, emergency rooms, and universities. He then became a Medical Officer for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, leading the agency’s efforts in the area of prescription drug use, misuse and disorders and partnering with other government agencies, medical organizations, community coalitions, law enforcement, and additional stakeholders to curb the abuse of prescription medications. Dr. Bizzell also served as Vice President for health and clinical services at D.B. Consulting Group, Inc., growing the organization’s health division and serving as a subject matter expert.
In 2010, Dr. Bizzell created The Bizzell Group, based in New Carrollton, Maryland, to address the challenges of systemic change in an effort to improve people’s lives in the U.S. and around the world. The firm designs innovative solutions in health, education, transportation, energy, justice, labor, and defense. 
Dr. Bizzell has built the business from its creation, starting with two people working in a small office to nearly 250 employees as of March 2022. The company continues to grow exponentially and has a presence in eight countries.
The Bizzell Group has developed new methods to connect with members of the U.S. military at risk of suicide, trained thousands of treatment providers on opioid use disorders, and addressed the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Having witnessed the ramifications of substance abuse first-hand, Dr. Bizzell is passionate about connecting individuals living with substance use disorders to support, treatment, and education. He was instrumental in launching The Bizzell Group’s Behavioral Health Advancement Resource Center, offering strategies to address significant behavioral health issues from suicide to substance use disorders, particularly for the most vulnerable groups.
Dr. Bizzell speaks frequently on both local and global issues. He also posts monthly to the Mind Your Health blog for Psychology Today, and has been interviewed for Cool Science Radio on NPR as well as other national and local media outlets. Dr. Bizzell has been called on to share his insights on many current topics such as the use of telemedicine to treat teen addiction during the pandemic, the disproportionate effect of the opioid crisis on the construction industry, the significance of the first FDA-approved treatment for Ebola, ongoing struggles with alcohol and drug misuse as COVID-19 persists, coping when a loved one is hospitalized with COVID, the warning signs of codeine addiction or overuse, the link between cocaine use and stroke, the importance of sleep in finding happiness during isolation, the connection between opioid use and contracting HIV, the impact of New York City’s police-free mental health response team, identifying the signs of Xanax abuse, the potential for addiction to MDMA, and the power of diversity in healthcare.
== Public service and community ==
Dr. Bizzell is a member of the Board of Directors for the Maryland Chapter of March of Dimes. In 2018, Dr. Bizzell received the designation as a Fellow for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, touring cities across the U.S. and engaging in conversations with state and local chambers to share innovative employer and business solutions and community partnerships in the battle against the opioid epidemic. In June 2020, Dr. Bizzell was appointed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Advisory Board which advises the Foundation’s leadership on strengthening America’s long-term competitiveness and educating the public on the conditions necessary for business and communities to thrive, how business positively impacts communities, and emerging issues and creative solutions that will shape the future. An advocate for increasing minority leadership opportunities, he is also former president of the Delta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first Intercollegiate African American fraternity. 
Dr. Bizzell is active in the Reid Temple A.M.E. Church in Glenn Dale, Maryland, an African American megachurch with more than 20,000 members. He was recently appointed to a leadership role in the church, as Steward Pro Tem and previously the Commissioner of Worship and Liturgy. In 2021, Dr. Bizzell was one of six distinguished presenters, along with Anthony Fauci|Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, at a virtual town hall sponsored by Reid Temple A.M.E. Church. At the event, “A Path Forward Through and Out of COVID-19: The Vaccine and The Black Perspective,” Dr. Bizzell spoke of the mental impact of the pandemic on everyone from young children to the elderly to minority populations, and offered hope to those seeking mental wellness in the wake of COVID-19.
Dr. Bizzell has also contributed his time, expertise, and mentoring skills as a member of the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) National Advisory Council, the Coalition on Physician Education in Substance Use Disorders, the National Football League’s Substance Abuse Committee, and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington-Prince Georges County Region.
== Awards and honors ==
Dr. Bizzell was named Maryland’s Small Business Person of the Year for 2020 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Inc. Magazine included his company on its list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in America in 2017 and 2018. 
Inc. Magazine also rated it the third fastest growing Black-owned small business in 2017 and the second fastest growing small business in Maryland that same year. In 2020, Inc. Magazine ranked The Bizzell Group 128th among the fastest growing private companies in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Washington Business Journal named it #10 among the fastest growing small businesses in the Washington DC metropolitan region in 2018, and #50 in 2019.
The Bizzell Group won three MUSE Creative Awards in 2021, including a Gold Award for BeSafeRx Relaunch, an FDA-sponsored national campaign to educate healthcare providers and consumers about the potential dangers of buying prescription medicine online; a Silver Award for the CMS-CDC Fundamentals of COVID-19 Prevention for Nursing Home Management website/training series; and a Silver Award for the CMS Toolkit on State Action to Mitigate COVID-19 Prevalence with curated content to help manage the spread of the coronavirus in long-term care facilities.
In 2020, The Bizzell Group won four Hermes Creative Awards. It received Platinum Awards for a CDC article, “ Ebola Outbreak Sparks Disease Surveillance Transformation in Sierra Leone,” and the marketing materials for the 2020 CMS Quality Conference. The Bizzell Group also was awarded Gold for advertising created for the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network Dissemination Initiative, and a video for the first episode of its health mini web series on the topic of community engagement and opioid use disorders.
Category:American people
Category:American businesspeople
Category:1970 births