39. Jeffrey Reynolds, Ph.D.

Call it power of the clear-minded mission. When the epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse hit Long Island in recent years, Reynolds was the guy politicians turned to for strategic input. Once the public learned how deadly the scourge is, he and his team has kept doing what they do best: walking desperate parents through the daunting process of rehabbing their children. After some of those parents lost their children to addiction, he helped them harness their energy into activism through a network of grassroots anti-drug advocacy groups Island-wide. And now that complacency is again setting in, Reynolds is still there, fighting to keep this ever-evolving issue in the public’s eye.