During the fourth annual Legislative Brunch, to be held April 26, at the Whispering Pines in Jim Thorpe, Gary Tennis, secretary to the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs will be one of the guest speakers.

Tennis was appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett and confirmed by the Pennsylvania Senate, to serve as secretary of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, which was created as a result of Act 50 of 2010.Tennis taught school in Pittsburgh from 1975 to 1977, after which he got his law degree from The University of Pennsylvania and in 1980 began his work as a line prosecutor until 1986.He was appointed as Chief of Legislation, where he represented the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association in the General Assembly until 2006 and also served as chairman of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office Hiring Committee from 1986 until 1991, where he established the Minority Hiring Recruitment Committee. From 1991 to 1993, Tennis had a temporary hiatus from the D.A.'s Office when he was appointed as executive director of the President's Commission on Model State Drug Laws, a bipartisan group consisting of state Attorney Generals, District Attorneys, treatment providers, prevention experts, police chiefs, mayors, and judges.The commission conducted hearings across the nation and adopted a comprehensive array of model state drug laws in five general areas: Treatment, Community Mobilization, Economic Remedies, Crimes Code and Drug Free Families, Schools & Workplaces (prevention).Tennis is currently chairman of the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, which has conducted monthly drug law conferences in state capitals across the nation and which continues to identify and develop model state legislation to effectively address alcohol and other drug problems. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Tulsa in 1975, where he was a Rhodes Scholar nominee.