WASHINGTON, D.C. — Angela Kennecke, founder and CEO of Emily’s Hope, was among a select group of advocates, medical professionals, law enforcement leaders and grieving parents invited to the White House Complex this week as the Trump administration unveiled its 2026 National Drug Control Strategy.
Kennecke, an Emmy Award-winning journalist who founded the Sioux Falls-based nonprofit in 2019 following the fentanyl poisoning death of her daughter Emily, had the opportunity to speak directly with Drug Czar Sara Carter, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, sharing Emily’s story and the work Emily’s Hope is doing across South Dakota and the nation.
“I was able to tell Sara Carter about Emily and about what we are doing in prevention and treatment,” Kennecke said. “It matters that the people setting national drug policy hear from families who have lived this. Behind every statistic is a name, a face, and a family.”
The summit brought together a wide range of voices, including former DEA head Derek Maltz, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, representatives from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and leaders from the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Several parents who have lost children to the overdose crisis were also in the room.
Carter announced that drug overdose deaths in the United States have fallen to approximately 70,000, roughly 40,000 fewer than the peak of the crisis. “The United States has reduced drug overdose deaths to 70,000,” Carter said. “That is mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, our friends and neighbors alive today. While this result is historic, there are still far too many Americans dying and therefore our work continues.”
Carter framed the strategy as a bipartisan imperative. “The drug crisis is not a Republican crisis or a Democrat crisis, but an American crisis that has impacted nearly every community throughout our nation,” she said.
The 195-page 2026 National Drug Control Strategy, released by ONDCP this week, outlines a two-front approach: disrupting the supply of illicit drugs at every point of entry while reducing demand through prevention, treatment, recovery and faith-based support. For the first time, the strategy includes a National Prevention Framework, emphasizing evidence-based programs, youth-focused education, and national media campaigns aimed at making a drug-free life the prevailing social norm.
The strategy’s emphasis on evidence-based prevention programs aligns directly with Emily’s Hope’s K-12 Substance Use Prevention Curriculum, which is on South Dakota’s Evidence-Based Program list and has been implemented across multiple states and one international school.
Other voices at the summit underscored the breadth of the crisis. HUD Secretary Scott Turner highlighted the intersection of addiction and homelessness, noting that 75 percent of unsheltered homeless individuals self-report a substance use disorder and that more than half say such disorders contributed to their loss of housing. “Attempting to help the homeless while doing little to stop addiction is like trying to fight a forest fire with a garden hose,” Turner said.
Sean McStravick of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service described the challenge of intercepting narcotics shipments hidden within e-commerce mail. “The narcotics shipments are placed in concealment mechanisms labeled inaccurately when coming into the country,” McStravick said. “They can hide between millions of pieces of mail.”
Dr. Stephen Taylor of the American Society of Addiction Medicine called for addiction care to be integrated into every hospital in the country. “Just as every hospital has a cardiology consult service and a pulmonology consult service, every hospital needs to have an addiction consult service,” Taylor said.
Kennecke also connected with Jackie Siegel of Victoria’s Voice, a national nonprofit founded in memory of Victoria Siegel, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2015. The two organizations share a mission of prevention, awareness and advocacy at the national level.
Emily’s Hope, now in its seventh year, operates a naloxone distribution program that has placed nearly 20,000 kits across 44 distribution points in 26 South Dakota counties, runs a post-overdose response program, supports a youth prevention coalition, and manages the K-12 curriculum now being expanded statewide with support from the South Dakota Opioid Settlement Fund.
For Kennecke, the day in Washington carried personal weight that no policy document can fully capture. Emily Groth was 21 years old when she died in 2018 after unknowingly consuming fentanyl. She left behind 29 paintings and a mother determined to turn grief into action.
“We are not fighting this alone,” Kennecke said. “And days like today remind me of that.”
