Sorg receives Governor’s Award for helping combat opioid epidemic

Gov. Janet Mills honored Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist and a University of Maine research professor at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, with the Governor’s Award during the sixth annual Governor’s Opioid Response Summit on Thursday, July 25.

Sorg was recognized for her “extraordinary contributions in the fight against substance use disorder,” according to a news release from the governor’s office. Sorg has served as a consulting forensic anthropologist to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maine for 45 years, also providing support to the chief medical examiners offices in New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island. She directs the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center’s Rural Drug & Alcohol Research Program and compiles overdose data for the state. She also co-created the Maine Drug Data Hub, which links to data, reports and other dashboards pertaining to drug problems and related Maine policies, with other UMaine researchers, the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, the Office of the Attorney General and several state agencies.