Before he started it, he needed to repair himself. “I experienced addiction as a teenager into my early adult years,” Yeager said. While getting the help he needed, he found a passion for providing that same help to others. It led him to a license in chemical dependency counseling. “My experiences allowed me to connect with people,” he claimed. “I know that pain. I’ve seen that pain. I recognize that pain.”
He also recognized that, due to industry demands, he could no longer keep working without a college degree. The Granville native was 32 years old and looking for “a kind, gentle campus environment,” he recalled. “That’s why I came to Ohio State Newark.” He graduated in 1991 with an associate degree in social work. He then went to the Columbus campus, earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in two years there.
Yeager never left the university, earning his doctoral degree from Ohio State too. He worked in the university’s hospital system the rest of his esteemed career. Along the way, he helped thousands of patients. He became a beloved professor. He treated Buckeye athletes who failed drug tests — eventually doing the same for players in the National Football League. He coauthored eight books, including what his colleagues consider the definitive textbook on crisis intervention.
But perhaps Yeager’s proudest accomplishment was cofounding the Stress, Trauma and Resilience (STAR) program, an “evidence-based, trauma-informed method of therapy,” at the Wexner Medical Center. It established Brief Emotional Support Teams (BEST), which help physicians and nurses who struggle to cope with their experiences on the job. “It’s absurd to think that what they see and do every day doesn’t have an emotional impact,” he said. “This program has normalized needing that kind of support.”
Yeager has garnered millions of dollars in grants. He used part of it to build BEST, through which his team has trained more than 1,200 peer supporters within the Wexner Medical Center. These initiatives have earned him acclaim and awards. He reached emeritus professor status in Ohio State’s College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. In 2024, Yeager received both Ohio State Newark’s Distinguished Alumni Award and an inaugural honor from Ohio’s Attorney General. From now on, the latter will be called the Dr. Kenneth Yeager Compassionate Leadership in Advocacy Award.
In retirement, he spends most of his time in his Granville home. It was built in the 1820s and condemned before he helped restore it — a monument to his painstaking care and a microcosm of his productive career. He spent decades in an unstable environment and used his lived experiences to help change it. “Above all, we have lessened the stigma of what people experience with regard to trauma and addiction,” he claimed. And with everything he has been through, “it hasn’t just been a career for me. It has been a way of life.”