Dr. Neil Capretto, the longtime medical director of Gateway Rehabilitation Center who helped save the lives of thousands of people struggling to overcome addiction was a graduate of Allegheny College in Meadville and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Capretto served as the chief resident in psychiatry at the former St. Francis General Hospital in Pittsburgh — where Dr. Abraham Twerski, served as head of psychiatry and became Dr. Capretto’s mentor. Twerski, an international expert in addiction, founded Gateway Rehabilitation in 1972.
Dr. Capretto regularly served as a consultant to local and national media outlets, including ABC and NBC network news, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People, Women’s Health, Ladies’ Home Journal and the Lifetime television network.
In 2009, he was named the Not-for-Profit Communicator of the Year by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
Dr. Capretto was among the first physicians in the United States to be certified and awarded diplomat status by the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He also served on the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Society of Addiction Medicine; was a member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, where he served on the Task Force on Addiction Medicine in the 21st Century; and was a member of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.In 2012, Dr. Capretto was named Psychiatrist of the Year by the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Dr. Capretto lost his fight to a rare gallbladder cancer on June 9, 2018.
