Dr. Keith L. Marshall, PsyD, M.H.D., MAC, SUDCC-IV-CS, is the Founder, CEO, and Clinical Supervisor of Dedicato Treatment Center, a California Department of Health Care Services–Certified Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program specializing in co-occurring mental health conditions. Under his leadership, Dedicato Treatment Center has earned The Joint Commission’s highest level of accreditation, placing it among approximately twenty-three percent of treatment centers nationwide recognized for excellence, transparency, and best practices.
Dr. Marshall is also a three-time International Impact Book Award recipient, honored with Outstanding Literary Achievement Awards, and the Author of the Year 2026 for both From Dumpster to Doctor: A True Story of Perseverance from Fear to Freedom and Factors of Transformation: Be the Change You Want. His writing has been recognized by the literary review industry gatekeepers Clarion Foreword and Kirkus reviews, for its powerful contribution to transformational literature, blending lived experience, disciplined thinking, and clinical insight to inspire accountability, resilience, and intentional change.
Dr. Marshall’s has a strong connection to the first-responder community which began long before his professional career. He was raised in a family deeply rooted in public service, healthcare, emergency response, and military service. His grandfather (RIP)served with the Philadelphia Police Department for thirty-five years retiring with the rank of Sergeant, his father (RIP) served in the City of Philadelphia in the public transportation sector as a trolley and bus driver fifteen years, and a paramedic for a private ambulance company for over twelve years, while his mother (RIP) devoted forty-seven years to professional nursing as a Registered Nurse. Throughout his immediate family—including his brothers, sons, and nephews—service has continued through careers in firefighting, paramedics, emergency-room nursing, law enforcement, Philadelphia City and Pennsylvania State Correction Officers, the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Three of Dr. Marshall’s sons also served on active duty during wartime (i.e., Afghanistan) in the United States Army, Air Force, and Navy. Growing up within a family culture of service gave him firsthand appreciation for the courage, sacrifice, discipline, and responsibility these professions demand, while also allowing him to witness the less visible effects of cumulative trauma, demanding shift work, repeated exposure to crisis, occupational stress, and the emotional burdens carried by first responders and their families.
Before entering the profession of addiction treatment and mental health, Dr. Marshall overcame more than twenty-three years of crack cocaine addiction, homelessness, incarceration, and repeated exposure to violence. He survived being shot in the head, stabbed multiple times, beaten, and left for dead. For a season of his life, he hid behind dumpsters in shame—an image that would later become symbolic of both survival and rebirth. After confronting early childhood sexual and physical abuse, trauma, and substance use disorder, he made a decisive commitment to rebuild his life through faith, accountability, education, and disciplined action.
Academically, Dr. Marshall spent nine years attending classes in person across three different college campuses. During that journey, he earned a Specialist Certificate in Alcohol and Drug Studies from Glendale College in Glendale, California, followed by bachelor’s and master’s degrees in human development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. He later earned his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at its Los Angeles campus. In addition to his clinical training, he completed a virtual executive education program and earned a Certificate in Corporate Board Governance through the Aresty Institute of Executive Education at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to his academic and executive training, Dr. Marshall holds multiple advanced certifications in addiction treatment, including the highly regarded Master Addiction Counselor (MAC) credential through NAADAC, reflecting advanced competency in addiction assessment, counseling, treatment, and clinical supervision. He also serves as a Department of Transportation Substance Abuse Professional (DOT-SAP), a federally defined role that places him in a critical gatekeeping position within the return-to-duty process for safety-sensitive transportation professionals following drug or alcohol violations. In this capacity, he conducts comprehensive evaluations, he provides and or recommends appropriate education and/or treatment and determines compliance with those recommendations before an employee may proceed in the federally regulated return-to-duty process.
Dr. Marshall also holds advanced certifications in clinical supervision, anger management, and professional fitness training. Collectively, these credentials reinforce his integrated philosophy that lasting transformation must address the mind, body, and spirit, aligning psychological healing, addiction recovery, disciplined physical wellness, personal responsibility, and spiritual accountability as essential pillars of sustainable recovery and human development.
His academic work includes extensive research in human development and substance use disorders, notably his master’s thesis, Exploring Psychopathology and Low Self-Esteem and Its Correlation with Adolescent Substance Abuse, and his doctoral dissertation, Human Developmental Risk Factors Associated with Adolescent Substance Use Disorders.
In June 2023, Dr. Marshall was honored with the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service, recognized alongside distinguished figures including the late cultural icon and multi-Emmy and Oscar-winning actor Lou Gossett Jr., multi-Grammy Award–winning artist Pastor Donnie McClurkin, and other nationally recognized leaders. The event was moderated by Dr. George E. Holmes, who has served five United States Presidents.
Today, Dr. Marshall is a nationally recognized clinician, author, transformational speaker, and advocate for whole-person recovery whose life stands as living proof that redemption, discipline, and purpose can rebuild what trauma once attempted to destroy.
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Dr. Keith Marshall has written his personal story of triumph over 23 years of addiction and self-destructive thinking and behaviors in his biography From Dumpster to Doctor a True Story of Perseverance from Fear to Freedom”. After 23 years of getting high on drugs and self-medicating, being homeless and hiding behind dumpsters, being shot in the head and stabbed multiple times and many other near-death situations, going in and out of jails and institutions, Dr. Marshall was able to break free from addiction.
He went back to school for nine years and earned a Doctorate Degree in Clinical Psychology and three professional addiction certifications. He has continued to lead life of purpose and meaning by sharing the gift of recovery with others at his own addiction recovery facility, Dedicato Treatment Center.
Dr. Marshall offers his personal journey in order to inspire others to take that very difficult first step in choosing to live a life free from addiction, trauma, or any other human developmental struggles that holds them bound. If you are thinking of recovery, but are afraid, we encourage you to read Dr. Marshall’s story. If you are inspired by his story to recover, then we welcome you to work with Dr. Marshall here at the Dedicato Treatment Center. Dr. Marshall is here actively and personally working with every patient to help them on their own unique journey from fear to freedom.
Factors of Transformation: Be The Change You Want does not waste one second expressing poetic fluff many self-help books use to solicit readers. At the onset of his introduction, author Dr. Keith L. Marshall states point blank he wants us to understand the power of our conscious and subconscious thoughts in every dimension of life, be it spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, or social. The idea is to assist those who desire to achieve liberation from negative thinking patterns that yield poor behaviors, to become sensitive to the power of thoughts and become more productive.
“A brutally honest and inspirational story of a man turning his life around.”
“His descriptions of living ‘in an internal prison with a life sentence and no parole date’ are gripping.”
Clarion and Kirkus are among the most recognized, respected literary review authorities and gatekeepers in the world for serious literary works, publishing credibility, rights acquisition, and screenplay or film adaptation consideration. Receiving professional recognition from both places Dr. Keith L. Marshall’s work in a rare class of independently authored books that have earned elite third-party validation for literary merit, market credibility, and adaptation potential, with a three-star Clarion review carrying particular significance as rare selective recognition for a work without major publishing-house backing, while the strength of the Kirkus review speaks powerfully for itself.
