Betsy Abrahams has been the executive director of The Youth Council in Nashua, New Hampshire for the last six years, bringing almost 20 years of experience working with greater Nashua children, teens and families. She has been recognized locally and throughout New Hampshire for her innovative programs and extensive collaboration developing numerous programs with measurable outcomes that serve children, teens and families struggling with abuse, neglect, alcohol and other drug problems, behavioral difficulties and parenting stress. Prior to joining The Youth Council as its executive director, Betsy spent 13 years working with children and families in a residential care/placement prevention setting in a variety of direct care, counseling, and management capacities.

Over the last several years, Betsy has been recognized for her leadership and commitment to greater Nashua children and families through: a Commendation from NH Governor Jeanne Shaheen, a management award for program evaluation given by the NH Children’s Trust Fund, and was named a 2002 Community Champion by WMUR-TV9 and Citizen’s Bank.

Since joining The Youth Council, Betsy has also become a tireless advocate at the state level serving in three significant leadership capacities to improve the quality of life for the people of New Hampshire -- as a founding board member of the Endowment for Health, an $85 million health care foundation; a member of the new Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Intervention and Treatment and its Prevention Task Force; and as a board member of New Futures – a substance abuse “think tank” focused on underage drinking and access to substance abuse treatment.

A New London, Connecticut native, Betsy received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Connecticut College in 1983 double majoring in Child Development and Sociology-Based Human Relations and a Master of Arts in Counseling from Rivier College in New Hampshire in 1990. In addition, Betsy is a 1999 graduate of Leadership Greater Nashua, a program that fosters leadership and high caliber professionalism organized by the Chamber of Commerce.

An active volunteer, Betsy is a member of the Rotary Club of Nashua West and Church of Our Saviour, an Episcopal church in Milford, NH. She lives in Merrimack with her daughter Jane.

Daniel Abrahamson is Director of Legal Affairs for The Drug Policy Alliance and its 501(c)4 affiliate, the Center for Policy Reform, where he oversees litigation, legislative drafting and public education efforts concerning drug policy and drug law reform. Mr. Abrahamson served as counsel of record for California physicians and medical marijuana patients in a federal class action lawsuit, Conant v. Walters, which secured the constitutional right of physicians to recommend medical marijuana to patients.

In addition, he has served as amicus counsel for over two dozen state and national medical, public health, substance abuse treatment and welfare organizations, including the American Public Health Association, American Academy of Addiction Medicine, the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in state and federal courts, including several cases in the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Abrahamson co-authored California’s Proposition 36, The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act 2000, which annually diverts over 35,000 non-violent drug possession offenders from jail and prison into community-based treatment, vocational and educational programs. Additional information about Mr. Abrahamson’s work with the Drug Policy Alliance can be found at www.drugpolicy.org.

Mr. Abrahamson is an adjunct professor of Law at Boalt Hall, U.C.-Berkeley and Hastings College of the Law, where he teaches courses on drug policy and criminal justice. He also supervises students in the civil rights clinic at Stanford University Law School. He has taught previously at Yale and Fisk Universities. Mr. Abrahamson received his B.A. from Yale University (magna cum laude), his M.A. from Oxford University (where he was a Keasbey scholar), and his J.D. from New York University School of Law (where he was a Root-Tilden scholar). After law school he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Gilbert S. Merritt, then Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and to the late Hon. William L. Dwyer of the Western District of Washington, Seattle. Prior to working at the Drug Policy Alliance, Mr. Abrahamson was a staff attorney at the California Appellate Project, where he assisted in the representation of death-sentenced inmates. 

Dr. Samira Asma is an epidemiologist and a senior service fellow at the Office on Smoking and Health since 1997. Dr. Asma is the acting director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco and Health since January 2001. Dr. Asma has a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from University of Bangalore, India and a Master of Public Health from the University of London. Dr. Asma began her career as a practicing dentist in India, spending much of her time involved in oral public health initiatives. She also worked as a research associate at University College in London, as a consultant to the Oral Health Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland and as a Professional Officer of the WHO’s Programme on Substance Abuse, Tobacco or Health.

At the Office on Smoking and Health, Dr. Asma is responsible for providing scientific expertise on smokeless tobacco while serving as a focal point for CDC’s global tobacco control activities. In this capacity, Dr. Asma provides direction to and coordinates global tobacco activities. She serves as a primary interface between CDC and multilateral agencies, i.e., WHO, World Bank, UNICEF, etc. working to create necessary venues and linkages to enable research, policy dialogues and initiatives on global tobacco control.

Dr. Asma has approximately 20 publications in international journals and monographs. She has also authored a number of influential policy papers and technical reports.

Kim Bishop-Stevens, MSW, LICSW, is the statewide substance abuse coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS). She is responsible for the development of policies, best practices and training related to substance abuse in the child welfare system. Kim also serves as DSS’s primary liaison for substance abuse interagency initiatives with sister state agencies and with community substance abuse providers. She has worked to foster linkages between child welfare offices and providers to increase access to treatment for families.

Kim received her BS in Human Development & Family Relations from the University of Connecticut in 1993. In 1995, she completed her Master in Social Work from Boston University. She began her career working as a clinical social worker with individuals and families impacted by substance abuse. Following this clinical work, Kim worked for the statewide substance abuse provider organization representing community substance abuse providers on policy, program and funding issues before joining DSS in 2000.

Jacqueline Jackson Bridges is project manager at Partnership for a Drug-Free Detroit within Detroit Health Department Bureau of Substance Abuse. A comprehensive coalition of stakeholders, the Partnership, serves as a catalyst for members to actively participate in changing attitudes, making healthy choices and fostering an environment that promotes healthy living.

Jacqueline’s commitment to designing programs to produce a new generation of drug-free youth inspired her development of the Youth Development Institute (YDI). YDI is designed to provide youth with an opportunity to directly impact substance abuse prevention initiatives by acquiring the necessary skills and leadership development needed to educate their peers, plan and coordinate peer prevention activities and recommend policy strategies.

With over 12 years of experience working with grassroots community organizations, she is the founding board president of three faith-based community groups, founding executive director of two grassroots community organizations and has served as a board member of various local and national groups.

Ms. Castro is the director of the Bronx foster care prevention and drug treatment programs at SCAN (Supportive Children’s Advocacy Network)-NY. She has her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Social Work and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in social work at Fordham University. She is a Certified Social Worker and a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor.

Ms. Castro has over 15 years of experience directing child welfare foster care prevention programs. As a social worker and then director in these programs, Ms. Castro learned first hand how addiction was one of the primary reasons families were entering the child welfare system. Ms. Castro’s work then centered on servicing substance abusing women and their children involved in child welfare. Ms. Castro has been actively involved with the family rehabilitation programs, which were specifically developed as a result of the crack epidemic. This program model provided both foster care prevention and drug treatment services primarily to women who gave birth to babies with positive drug toxicology of crack cocaine. However, during citywide budget cuts in 1995, all of the drug treatment programs lost funding. Since then, Ms. Castro has creatively sought resources in order to continue to provide drug treatment services on-site. She continues to advocate for the service needs of families impacted by drug addiction.

She is interested in the development of family focused programs which would address the diverse needs of all family members through the provision of comprehensive services including drug treatment and prevention. Her plans also include conducting research to increase the body of knowledge on what individual, familial and community factors influences a mother to practice drug prevention strategies with her children.

Ms. Castro resides in New York City, New York with her husband Michael, daughter Rebecca and son, Joshua. She loves photography, reading, going to the movies, shopping, traveling and spending time with her family.

Carol S. D’Agostino, LMSW, CASAC is the Director of the Geriatric Addictions Program at LIFESPAN of Greater Rochester, Inc., in New York.

In 1993, D’Agostino started her career in mental health services as a behavioral health counselor at the Unity Health System in Rochester, New York. Subsequently, she earned her B.S. in Human Services at Empire State College and her MSW at Syracuse University, where she focused on geriatric mental health. After completing her graduate work in 1999, D’Agostino joined the legal collaboration of LIFESPAN and the Catholic Family Center where she worked as the geriatric mental health specialist for the Eldersource Program. She went on to open a private practice in Rochester, while continuing to serve on a contract basis with LIFESPAN. In January 2001, she accepted her current position.

Under D’Agostino’s direction, LIFESPAN’s Geriatric Addictions Program (G.A.P.) has become a model for addressing the unique challenges faced by older adults coping with substance abuse issues, as well as the physical and psychological problems associated with aging. At G.A.P., the primary focus is combining assessment, intervention and intensive geriatric care management services for clients in their homes. By serving clients at home, D’Agostino and her colleagues are hoping to combat the fear of discrimination and ageism that discourage many older adults from seeking help for their addictions. D’Agostino was the recipient of an Ashoka Fellowship for International Social Entrepreneurs (2003-2004) for her cutting-edge work in this field.

In addition to her work at LIFESPAN, D’Agostino serves as a faculty member on the LIFESPAN/St. John Fisher College Gerontology Certificate Program. She also holds other teaching positions in the Rochester community at the Rochester Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association Learning Institute and the Rochester Chapter of the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence. She sits on the MSW advisory board for the Greater Rochester Collaborative (program merger between SUNY Brockport and Nazareth Colleges) and is the co-chair for the Prevention/Wellness Subcommittee for the Senior Action Planning Process (a joint project of the Monroe County Office for the Aging and the United Way of Greater Rochester). She has also been appointed to the Expert Panel of the Older Americans Substance Abuse & Mental Health Technical Assistance Center of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services/Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.  D’Agostino is completing an MA (anticipated May 2005) in Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College in  Vermont.  D’Agostino has also co-authored the “Psycho-Educational Program for Abusers of the Elderly”—a 12-week copyrighted curriculum, which is used as an alternative to incarceration for abusers of the elderly.

M.J. (Mickey) Eliason has been on the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Nursing for the past 15 years. About ten years ago, she shifted her research interest from pediatric psychology and working with children with fetal alcohol syndrome to re-train in substance abuse. She began to concentrate on issues of substance abusing mothers and women in general. Mickey is the principal investigator on a grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment on “bridging the gap” between research and practice. This statewide project involves assembling teams of researchers, providers, and policy makers to develop more relevant research and training projects for our state. She is an investigator on another CSAT project, the Prairielands Addiction Technology Transfer Center. The ATTC is one of 13 centers nationwide that focus on dissemination of empirically based information about substance abuse to a wide variety of audiences. Mickey advises the ATTC on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender substance abuse and is an active member of CSAT’s LGBT workgroup. She just finished a three-year appointment as the director of the Sexuality Studies Program on campus.

Mickey’s area of concentration for the RWJF fellowship is incarcerated women. About four years ago, she was appointed to a task force of the Iowa Department of Corrections women’s division. The purpose of the task force was to develop a training curriculum on female offenders, focusing on their substance abuse problems. After several visits to the women’s prison, she began devoting more time and attention to the issues of incarcerated drug addicted women. About 70% of women in prison have significant alcohol and/or drug problems, and two-thirds are incarcerated because of drugs—either drug dealing or possession, or committing crimes to get money for drugs. Most of these women are also mothers of minor-aged children. Incarceration of mothers has much more direct and devastating effects on children than does incarceration of fathers, but there has been little attention paid to the huge impact on society of incarcerating drug addicted women. Mickey’s project will examine the impact of incarceration on the children in terms of living arrangements and family disruptions, emotional impact of change in caregivers as well as reactions to the mother’s incarceration and effects on learning and behavior. In Iowa, there are about 550 incarcerated women with a conservative estimate of 750 children who have been affected by incarceration. These children are at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system as well as emotional and behavioral problems. One of the policies that Mickey would like to influence as part of her work is the visiting policy at the prison. It is currently restrictive and intimidating for children who are sometimes searched before entering the visiting area.

Ultimately, Mickey’s goal is to change societal attitudes about incarcerated and substance abusing women. Currently, they are a highly stigmatized group who are considered “spoiled” or “deviant” women, thus public policy and laws about drug use have targeted these women with little outcry about injustice. These women are disproportionately poor and women of color, although the criminal justice system in Iowa tries to ignore the implications of the race and class-based legal system.

Brion is an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC). He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his primary area of research was medical imaging. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, and then practiced health and environmental law in Detroit, Michigan for four years.

From his earliest undergraduate days, his desire was to work in the field of health policy research. When his wife was awarded an RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Research fellowship, he left legal practice, followed her to Berkeley, California and obtained his own postdoctoral fellowship in Health Services Research at the University of California San Francisco. His research preceptor Stanton Glantz introduced Brion to tobacco control research.

Upon completing their postdoctoral programs, Brion and his wife moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where she became an assistant professor in the school of social work, and he began working at the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin Medical School (CTRI). His first responsibility at CTRI was to direct the project for the United States Public Health Service clinical practice guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence. While at CTRI, he began a postdoctoral fellowship in Preventive Oncology at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center. After completing the Guideline and his fellowship, Brion was hired as an assistant scientist in Policy Research at CTRI. In September 2002 Brion was hired full time at the UWCCC as an associate scientist, where he now pursues his tobacco control research.

Brion’s research focuses mainly on bridging gaps among science, law and policy as they relate to tobacco. His underlying research philosophy is that working across disciplines will create new and improved ways to combat the tobacco problem in this country. Because his research touches on many overarching issues, he has had the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of tobacco-related projects. Some of his projects include: directing a national program to disseminate evidence-based tobacco cessation recommendations; researching the role of ethics in tobacco control; working with and promoting technical assistance legal services in tobacco control policy; analyzing the public health implications of legal settlements with the industry; researching consumer’s perceived risks of smoking and its legal and policy implications; and analyzing tobacco industry tactics to disrupt public health programs.

Brion and his wife, Stephanie Robert, enjoy Madison and the opportunities it offers. Stephanie is continuing her research on SES disparities and health, and was recently awarded, as co-director, an RWJF post-doctoral program in Population Health. They have two children, Emily and Abigail. When not working or spending time with his family, Brion enjoys sports, cooking, and reading. Brion is also active in his community, serving on the board of directors of the Friends of the Waisman Center, a leading research and outreach center for people with developmental disabilities.

Anita Gaillard joined the staff of the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency (ITPC) in July 2001 as the Director of Community Programs. She is responsible for the more than $36 million allocated through 2003 for community-based programs. The community-based programs are implemented through local community-based partnerships, minority-based partnerships, and state, regional and pilot partnerships. Prior to joining ITPC, she worked at St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers for 12 1/2 years as the marketing representative concentrating on tobacco control, government relations and physician relations.

Anita has been active with tobacco control for over 10 years, serving as the chair of the Central Coalition of Smokefree Indiana for four years. While at St. Francis, Anita was instrumental in creating a greater awareness of the dangers of tobacco use and encouraged youth to participate as advocates in tobacco control. She is a cessation instructor and initiated a youth cessation awareness program. Mrs. Gaillard holds a Master of Science in Public Health degree from Meharry Medical College and a B.A. from Fisk University, both in Nashville, Tennessee. During her spare time, she enjoys reading, golfing, walking and spending time with her husband Teal.

I'm a journalist passionate about causes, and reducing substance abuse has been one of them for the past decade. I'm lucky, because as an editorial writer, it's my job to have opinions, so I can be an advocate. If I was a reporter, that wouldn't be possible.

I began working in journalism as a copy boy for the Associated Press in its midtown Manhattan headquarters while working on a master’s degree at New York University. I then worked as a reporter for the Associated Press in Denver, CO, and Raleigh, NC, and later as a reporter and editor at several newspapers in Florida and California. I've been an editorial writer since 1990.

My interest in substance abuse began in graduate school when I wrote my thesis on the first drop-in center for homeless women in Manhattan. At the time, I took the same gee-whiz attitude toward homelessness that the media and most people had adopted, seeing it simply as a problem of people without homes. I followed the issue wherever I went, writing about homelessness in Denver, North Carolina, Florida and California during the 1980s. I soon found out that simply offering homeless people shelter didn't reduce the problem, because homeless people had deeper problems: Most were substance abusers.

So I began to look at that pathology. I started writing articles with my brother, a psychiatrist who works in chemical dependency on alcohol and drug issues and their relationship to crime, mental health, and other social problems. We wrote opinion pieces that ran in newspapers across the country. In 1999, I was named a Pulliam Editorial Fellow by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation (a major journalists' group) to study the issue of substance abuse in America, which help lay the foundation for my work with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse.

My DLRSA project is to write about substance abuse. So far, I've written about a half-dozen articles, and am currently writing a piece for The Nation on the alcohol industry's interference with federal prevention efforts. RWJF and this particular program have provided me with access to policy makers and substance abuse experts, plus the means to do all the research and reporting I need to do. It's given me the opportunity to become as close to being an expert on an issue that a journalist would want to be.

DeWayne Holman is the Director of the Nashville Prevention Partnership (NPP), a community anti-drug coalition.  He is charged with management of NPP staff, development of board governance and administering grants from the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, The State of Tennessee, and Drug Free Communities Support Federal Grant through The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.  Prior to becoming the Director he worked as the program Manager for the Drug Free Communities Grant at NPP.  Holman has also worked as a Community Organizer for the Neighborhood Resource Center and has coordinated a school-based prevention program.  In 1997, he was appointed the Youth Engaged in Service (YES) Ambassador for the state of Tennessee were he encouraged young people to become leaders and resources in their community.  In 1992-1997, he got his start in drug prevention when he worked part-time at a community center as an assistant coordinator of a drug prevention program.

In 1996, Holman was awarded the Minority Access to Research Careers Scholarship at Tennessee State University and the Graduate Minority Health Careers Institute Internship at Pennsylvania State University.  As part of his internship, he obtained practical experience in a human subject lab where he worked for Dr. Helen Barrett on her research on caffeine and smoking addiction.  He graduated from Tennessee State University in 1997 where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and was inducted into Psi Chi Honor Society for academic excellence.  Holman went on to earn a Master of Public Administration in 2005 from Tennessee State University and a Certificate for Public Health Planning and Administration.  He was also inducted into the Phi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Public Administration in 2005 for academic excellence.     

Holman has dedicated many hours as a volunteer in the community.  He has participated in events such as Nashville Pulse Day, an initiative to increase youth led volunteer opportunities, Habitat for Humanity, and has participated on steering committees for several local schools.  Holman has also worked several years for the Nashville Youth Chorus as a counselor and assistant director.  He is married to a lovely and supportive wife, Trisha.  They have one daughter, Marissa Angelique. 

Harrison is a Dine’ (Navajo) traditional supervisor at NCI (Na’nizhoozhi Center) in Gallup, New Mexico. NCI is the largest Native American residential crisis facility in the country. NCI is staffed with seven full-time traditional Native American practitioners serving 28 residential clients each day. His mother’s clan is “Haltsooi” (Meadow People), and he was born for his father’s clan “Kinyaa’a ‘anii (Towering House).

As a co-founder and clinical supervisor of the Native American traditional program, Hiin’ah Bitso’s Society (HBS), Harrison has adapted Native American therapies into a powerful modern context. He is also a life-long participant in the Lakota Sundance, an apprentice for both the Dine’ “Protection” and “Blessing-Way” ceremonies, a licensed Native American church official, a certified Navajo Nation Peacemaker, a certified philosopher and consultant for the Navajo Nation Medicine Man Association, a Viet Nam Era Veteran, an experienced workshop presenter, and local community leader. Harrison’s personal philosophy follows the Navajo “beauty-way” tradition. Because traditional Native American medicine practice requires a total worldview, both on and off duty, practitioners typically spend more years of training than Western therapists (often beginning at childhood). He is bilingual, bi-cultural, and has a professional reputation as a hard-hitting crises manager.

Dr. Satya Krishnan is an associate professor in the Department of Health Science, teaching a variety of public health and community health courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels. She also serves as the department graduate program coordinator. She has served on and continues to serve on master’s thesis committees as chair and/or a member. She received her Ph.D. in 1994 from Texas Woman’s University in Community Health education, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in New York City funded by the National Institute of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. She has been on the faculty of New Mexico State University since 1996.

Dr. Krishnan’s areas of research interests and funding include violence, HIV/AIDS, mental health, and alcohol and other drug use and abuse. Her research has focused on these issues, particularly among minority populations and underserved populations. She has just concluded a two-year longitudinal research study funded by the National Institute of Justice on the correlates of violence among rural women including alcohol and other drug use. She was the project director on a National Institute of Mental Health small grant that focused on HIV/AIDS among women in STD clinics and methadone clinics. She has been the recipient of other grant funding within the university and from the Texas Department of Health.

She currently has a grant pending examining issues of suicide and depression in New Mexico under review. Another grant proposal on alcohol use and abuse among college students is under review by the Department of Education. Her research efforts have concentrated on core issues such as violence, alcohol and other drug use, mental health issues including depression and suicide, and high-risk behaviors among youth, and how these health issues and behaviors are connected to one another. A recent evolving research interest has been migrant health issues in the border region. A common thread in all of her research and intervention efforts has been to the exploration of health issues affecting minority populations, underserved populations, and those with little ability to affect public policy or political change.

Dr. Krishnan has published over 15 peer-reviewed articles on violence, mental health, alcohol and other drug use, and HIV/AIDS and has authored book chapters on issues of violence in intimate relationships. She is on the editorial board of the journal Family & Community Health and serves as a reviewer for journals such as Crime and Justice Research, Violence against Women, and Family & Community Health. She was the issue editor of the special issue of Family & Community Health on ‘violence in the family’ published in April 2001. Additionally, Dr. Krishnan has a number of non-peer reviewed publications including a booklet for teachers on how to communicate with their students and youth on risk behaviors and HIV/AIDS. She has served as a technical reviewer of grant proposals for the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Krishnan serves on the boards of local community organizations and is involved in a number of public health initiatives in the community.

Donald J. Kurth, M.D., FASAM is chief of service in Addiction Medicine at the Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center and associate professor of Addiction Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. In addition, he is a member of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, currently serving as president elect, as well as Chairmen of the CSAM Public Policy Committee. On the national level, he participates in the American Society of Addiction Medicine where he serves on the board of directors as the California Alternate, as well as chairing the Membership Committee and co-chairing the Therapeutic Communities Committee. He also serves on the faculty of the ASAM Course, Pain and Addiction: Common Threads. In addition, he is an active member of ASAM's Public Policy Committee, writing and developing public policy statements in addiction medicine, and serves as acting chairperson of the Legislative Advocacy Committee.

Dr. Kurth received his B.A. from Columbia University in New York in 1975, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation, he was elected by his classmates to be awarded the Edward Sutliff Brainard Memorial Prize as "the classmate of most worthy of distinction for his qualities of mind and character." He went on to attend medical school at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving his MD in 1979. While in medical school at P & S, he also attended Oxford University on a scholarship from the International College of Surgeons, studying orthopedic surgery at the Nuffield Orthopedic Centre in Oxford, England. Dr. Kurth went on to serve his internship in surgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and his residency at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles, California.

In 2000, Dr. Kurth helped to make the treatment of addiction instead of incarceration a reality in California with public policy support for Proposition 36 (which passed by a 61% vote of the people), allowing many thousands of addicted persons to receive the treatment they deserve. In 2003, he founded the first Legislative Day organized by the California Society of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Kurth and his colleagues brought 80 addiction medicine physicians to Sacramento, California to learn how to change substance abuse public policy legislation and to meet with California legislators to teach them about the successful treatment of addiction. He also serves on the Council on Legislation of the California Medical Association.

Dr. Kurth is active in clinical research in the treatment of chronic pain without narcotics and is a nationally recognized expert, speaking frequently on this topic around the country. He is recognized for his expertise in addiction treatment and, among many publications, recently wrote the chapter, "Therapeutic Communities", published in Principles of Addiction Medicine, Third Edition, by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. He also serves on the board of governors of Daytop Village, a drug free therapeutic community and drug addiction rehabilitation center. In addition to his other duties, he serves as a member of the city council in his hometown of Rancho Cucamonga, California.

María Fernanda Levis-Peralta is currently the executive director of the Chana Goldstein & Samuel Levis Foundation, whose mission is to promote the social, economic and cultural well being of Puerto Rico by investing in educational initiatives for children and aiding the homeless. In addition to her work at the Foundation, she also serves as advisor to the Coalition for the Continued Support for the Homeless in San Juan, Yo Limpio a Puerto Rico a non-profit environmental advocacy group and Center for the New Economy a non-profit policy think tank. She is also the treasurer of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and was recently appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico as the non-profit sector representative on the inter-agency council for the implementation of public policy on homelessness.

She has a B.A. from the College of William and Mary with a concentration in Sociology and English, is an alumni of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Philanthropy Workshop and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Non Profit Management from the Milano Graduate School at the New School for Social Research.

María Fernanda is particularly concerned with the development of the non-profit sector in Puerto Rico and is working to strengthen it and to promote increased philanthropy in support of the sector.

Luis G. Manzo, Ph.D. is the Assistant Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Montclair State University, where he is helping establish a comprehensive approach to addressing alcohol and other drug use on campus. Prior to joining the staff at Montclair, Luis served as the Coordinator of Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment services at The University of Notre Dame’s University Counseling Center and coordinated the drug and alcohol prevention, assessment, and treatment services at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Dr. Manzo holds a BA in Psychology and History at Bates College from Lewiston, Maine, a MA in Sport Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Loyola University Chicago. Additionally, Luis holds a Certificate of Proficiency in the Treatment of Alcohol and Other Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders through the American Psychological Association’s College of Professional Psychology and is a member of the Motivational Interviewers Network of Trainers (MINT). Luis is also the co-founder and vice-president of BACZONE, Ltd. a harm reduction based company, which produces and trains individuals in the use of personalized blood alcohol concentration cards.

Deborah McLean Leow is Associate Director for Technical Assistance and Training with CSAP's Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (NECAPT) based at Education Development Center in Newton, Massachusetts. In this capacity she works with prevention providers and leaders in an 11-state northeast region to apply prevention science to substance abuse challenges in states and communities.

In 1992, she received her BA in sociology from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York and in 1994 she completed a Master’s in Social Work at Syracuse University. Prior to her work with EDC, Ms. McLean Leow served as special assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs at Syracuse University coordinating a federally funded grant to reduce substance abuse in the university community. She was instrumental in developing a comprehensive approach to prevention including a university-wide policy on alcohol, other drugs and tobacco, a referral and intervention program for students-at-risk and a campus-community coalition.

During her tenure at Syracuse, she ran peer-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs, conducted HIV/AIDS testing counseling, and coordinated a community-based HIV/AIDS prevention research project for socially/ economically disadvantaged women.

Ms. McLean Leow serves on a number of state and regional substance abuse prevention committees including CSAP's National CAPT System Steering Committee and is a founding and planning committee member for the New England School of Prevention Studies. Ms. McLean Leow plays an active role in the HIV/AIDS Service Ministry at Union United Methodist Church in Boston, Massachusetts and the annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS.

Shan Mohammed, MD, MPH is currently an Assistant Professor Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a clinician in the Department of Family Medicine and also serves as the Associate Director of the Master of Public Health Program in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

He received his BA in Music History/Musicology prior to working as a Peace Corps Volunteer on the Thai-Laotian border, where he implemented projects through the Ministry of Public Health. Subsequently, he received his Master of Public Health from Boston University with a concentration in Health Services and Social & Behavioral Sciences. He graduated from Case School of Medicine and completed a Family Medicine residency and Academic Medicine Fellowship at University Hospitals/CWRU.

As a family physician dedicated to the care of patients and their families, he has witnessed the morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco, alcohol and intravenous drugs. He has heard stories of lost relationships, regretted accidents, lost educational opportunities, sexual abuse, HIV infection, and death. However, in a world of 10,000 sorrows he is glad to have experienced some of the 10,000 joys by sharing in  celebrations of sobriety, of second chances, of lost opportunities regained, and of families reunited.

In addition to his clinical and administrative responsibilities, his current research focuses on the ability of primary care providers to reduce risky behaviors in inner-city youth by providing brief interventions with the youths’ parents to improve parenting skills. Through this fellowship he plans to look critically at how graduate programs in public health train students to address substance abuse issues.

2001 Fellow
Director of Research and Knowledge Development
People Reaching Out
Sacramento, California

Tamu Nolfo is a certified prevention specialist who has worked in the field of prevention for over fifteen years. She has focused on integrating the latest research developments and community needs into strategies for youth and family wellness. Her accomplishments include developing and leading the Technical Assistance Coalition of Sacramento, successfully advocating for an increase in Sacramento County’s funding for prevention and being handpicked as an advisor for the State of California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

Mrs. Nolfo’s publication contributions include Under Construction: Adolescent Brain Development and Its Implications for Preventing Alcohol and Drug Abuse; Mentors in a Diverse Society: Communicating Across the Divide; Changing the Landscape: A Study of the Impact of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse in Our Community; and Tilling the Soil: Reflections and Stories of Change and Transformation. She has presented workshops on Demystifying Program Evaluation, Best Practice Programming, Effective Youth-Adult Collaborations, Developmental Strategies for Multiracial Youth, Maximizing Practitioner-Evaluator Relationships and Strategic Planning for Non-profit Organizations.

Mrs. Nolfo has been awarded the Community Service Award from the University of California, Davis, and the Harold Cole Memorial Award from the Sacramento County Alcohol and Drug Advisory Board for her outstanding contributions to the field. She proudly served as a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse Program from 2001-2004.

Mrs. Nolfo is currently completing her Ph.D. program in human development with an emphasis on adolescent socio-emotional development from the University of California, Davis. She serves as the Project Director of the Community Prevention Institute at the Center for Applied Research Solutions.

Dalimarie Perez at the present time holds the position of Senior Program Manager of the Latino Program at Catholic Family Center’s Restart Substance Abuse Services in Rochester, New York. She is a Latino woman who was born and raised along with three brothers in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

She enjoys reading, exercises, walking, spending time with family and friends and traveling for pleasure. She likes the sun, beaches and her country Puerto Rico. She is family oriented and she has an extended family that she enjoys spending time with them. She is a woman of faith. She is involved in faith-based activities with a membership to a local church. She also recognizes the value of being involved in the community by participating in committees, community events and activities.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Puerto Rico in 1990. Thereafter, she earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration. In 1996, she moved to Rochester as she was offered an employment opportunity at Restart Substance Abuse Services. In Rochester, she furthered her education in advanced ESL at the University of Rochester. She also enrolled in social work master level course at Robert Wesleyan College and in numerous trainings and conferences on leadership, public health, public administration, grant writing, drug and alcohol treatment and prevention education. She became a Certified Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist through the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association. She was also fortunate by partaking in program on leadership development in the Hispanic Leadership Development Program through the United Way of Greater Rochester. Also, she became a credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor by the state of New York in 2001. She is a certified instructor for the state of New York to provide Client-Counselor Relationships training. She also has provided training in the areas of Assessment, Treatment Planning and others. She offers these trainings to alcohol and substance abuse counselors in Rochester, New York. Currently, she is enrolled in the Ph.D. Public Policy Administration Program at Walden University.

She has focused working in the Latino Community in Rochester for the past eight years. She has been an effective leader addressing issues such as drug/alcohol, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, youth’s education and cultural competence in the City of Rochester and Puerto Rico.

Many times she thought of returning to Puerto Rico but the needs of the Latino Community here called her to give what she has as a professional and as a person a chance to assist. For this reason she got involved in volunteer work, helping other minorities in the City of Rochester. Having experience working with other agencies as a volunteer gave her the opportunity to gain more knowledge about service needs of minorities in Rochester. She could be more effective by participating in community based committees, she became an active member of several different committees addressing issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, recruitment and retention in the substance abuse field and cultural competence. She is the former Vice–chair of the Hispanic Leadership Development Program of United Way of the Greater Rochester. Currently, she is the Coordinator of Information Dissemination of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Steering Committee - Hispanic/Latino Initiative from the Center of Substance Abuse Prevention. She is also the The Soy Unica! Soy Latina! Rally Coordinator in Rochester, NY. This rally is a public education campaign designed to help Hispanic girls ages 9 –14 to build and enhance their own self-esteem, mental health, decision-making and assertiveness skills, and to prevent the harmful consequences of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. Through her participation in these committees, leadership programs and her work experience, she has frequently been called to address the significantly high rate of school dropouts, drug and alcohol use, mental health, and teen pregnancies experienced by Latino youth to local and national conferences and local media.

She is most concerned with the significant number of drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and school dropouts among the Latino youth and children of alcoholics and substance abusers. Her focus for the fellowship has been to develop a bilingual preventive environment for COA (children of alcoholics) and COSA (children of substance abusers), which includes counseling, supportive services, family program, recreation and prevention activities.

Mentor:

Jodi L. Radke is currently residing on the Front Range in Northern Colorado; Jodi lives in a small city called Loveland. Miles from “home”, but, not in heart, Loveland resembles the personality of where she grew up, a small village in Northeast Michigan called Hubbard Lake.

Jodi has been involved in the health arena for approximately six years. She has assisted in developing governmental strategies relating to health reform with WIC, MSS, ISS, and migrant nutrition programs with the state health department and a small clinic in Southwest Michigan. She has worked in corporate settings implementing preventative strategies and programs to increase health/fitness and decrease social and health risk indicator data. She spent three years teaching within the public school sector, 1.5 years committed to the Americorps VISTA project, and, is currently employed as a Regional Prevention Specialist for Region 1, Northeastern Colorado, with the Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion and Education (funded through ADAD, Colorado Alcohol Drug Abuse Division). She currently manages 12 counties, which demographically include urban populations, as well as frontier and rural landscapes. She directs the technical assistance in Region 1 as related to the prevention of substance use and social and health risks that are associated with use.

Jodi has been recognized with many community awards in excellence for her continued commitment to this field.

On a personal note, Jodi loves to hike, cycle, do yoga, raft, run, read, listen to live concerts and music of many genres, participate in century races, duathalons, climb14’ers, ski, study Native American culture, sports, follow the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong, participate in environmental/animal rights organizations, and to spoil two of her best friends, Nyska and Tundra, (her Siberian Huskies). Jodi also enjoys time alone, travel, visiting family and quality time with her fiancé and friends.

My name is Stanley Richards, and I was born, raised and currently reside in the South East Bronx in New York City. I come from a large family that consists of five girls and two boys. I am the oldest boy and the fifth eldest child. I am currently married and have four children. I grew up in a housing project devastated by substance abuse, addiction, crime, poverty, hopelessness and anger.

At an early age I experienced my own devastation, I lost my mother to an asthma attack. By the time I turned thirteen, I joined a gang and started to use marijuana and alcohol. My gang involvement and drug use, of course, resulted in my first arrest at age fifteen. In 1978, after I realized that I was not going anywhere in school, I decided with my father’s approval to join the army. After enlisting, I quickly found out that joining the army was not the answer. I soon went AWOL - absent without leave - and returned to my small world and dysfunctional and devastated community. My return home started twelve years of short and long jail and prison incarcerations, drug addiction, and a daily sense of hopelessness. It was not until my last incarceration that I steadied myself and found hope. I was able to develop a sense of hope - while in prison - by obtaining my GED and graduating from Medialle College with an Associate’s Degree in Social Science.

After my release from prison in 1991, I maintained my focus and sense of hope and belief in myself and obtained a job as a counselor with the Fortune Society. While in that position, I was able to share my substance abuse and prison experiences with others who were either facing or experiencing a similar situation. As time went on, I applied for and obtained the position of Director of Career Development and eventually the Director of Education and Career Development at the Fortune Society.

After a number of years in management positions, I decided to combine my counseling and management skills and I applied for the position of Case Work Supervisor with the Health Link Project, a project of Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health. Health Link is a jail and community based case management program that seeks to reduce recidivism, substance use and abuse among male adolescents and adult women incarcerated on Rikers Island a New York City jail and who reside in the Bronx and Harlem.

Due to my personal and professional experiences, my educational and professional interest is in public health, criminal justice and social policy. I would like to better understand the impact and collateral effect of national social policies, i.e. Medicaid, and welfare reform as it relates to access to substance abuse treatment and treatment modalities for urban communities and service providers. I consider myself a client and systems advocate seeking to change the destructive cycle of mass incarceration and the criminalization of addiction. I enjoy fishing, weightlifting, music and relaxing in the outdoors.

Javier Sanchez is a prevention program specialist currently working for Youth to Youth International. Javier was involved in the drug prevention and leadership program for teens during his senior year in high school and then began working for them in 1993. After working in Columbus, Ohio for a year he had the opportunity to move to the Cayman Islands where for five years he was the coordinator for their national Youth to Youth program. During that time he coordinated several youth conferences and trainings, maintained Youth to Youth and Jr. Youth to Youth programs in two middle schools and three high schools, and even helped to start a Youth to Youth program in the Turks and Caicos Islands. In 1999 Javier and his wife moved back to Columbus, Ohio where he once again joined the team at Youth to Youth International. His primary responsibilities include national and regional conference staff trainer, team leader for Youth to Youth’s Franklin County Youth Advisory Board, and Violence Prevention Coordinator. Javier recently took on a new role as the High School Advisor Liaison, providing support for high school drug-free club advisors in over twenty schools in five different school districts. Javier is also one of Youth to Youth's National Speakers and has spoken to thousands of teens in Japan, Germany, Italy, the Caribbean and across the United States. Currently, Javier lives in Columbus, Ohio with his beautiful wife Chanell, their 3 year-old boy Mateo and their baby girl Isa.

S. Pirzada Sattar, M.D. is assistant professor and director of psychiatric treatment at the Substance Abuse Treatment Center (SATC) of the Omaha Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Nebraska. He is also the associate director of residency training at the joint Creighton University and University of Nebraska Psychiatry Residency Program in Omaha, Nebraska.

Pirzada received his M.D. from Dow Medical College in Pakistan and completed his psychiatry residency at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Then he completed three fellowships, in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, in forensic psychiatry at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Harvard Medical School and in addiction psychiatry at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

In his clinical role, Pirzada treats substance abusing patients and their coexisting psychiatric disorders. In his faculty position, he teaches, mentors and advises residents and medical students. He is also actively involved with research in developing better treatments for substance abusing patients and developing better teaching approaches for educating residents and medical students about substance abuse. He has published in several peer-reviewed journals and has received grant funding for his research projects and is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals.

He is currently working with the present leadership in his department, the legislature and the office of the Governor to help the state of Nebraska develop better policies to serve the substance-abusing patients in the correctional settings.

Jeff is the training coordinator for FACE, a nationally recognized media, training and advocacy organization that focuses specifically on alcohol issues.

Prior to working at FACE, Jeff served as the executive director for the Circle of Health Partnership, a regional, community based prevention organization that takes an environmental approach to addressing problems associated with alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Jeff has spent the last eight years conducting trainings for community groups, business, industry and universities on efforts to reduce alcohol-related problems.

Jeff has developed training models on drug-free worksite policy, manager and supervisory training, community organizing, college and university policies regarding alcohol issues, youth mentoring and youth advocacy. He has conducted national training on alcohol policy for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grantees in 12 states on Reducing Youth Access to alcohol. He currently serves on the board of directors for the largest community based prevention organization in the state of Michigan.

Jeff is currently a Michigan High School Athletic Association football and basketball official. He has served as an assistant coach for the Midland High School girl’s varsity softball team for the past six years. For the past 12 years Jeff played fast-pitch softball with the Midland-Explorers, a perennial top ten team in the country. He has been named to All-American and All-World teams during his time. Jeff loves to play golf, hunt, fish, and being outdoors. He is also active in his community as a board member of the Midland Sunrise Optimist Club.

Jeff’s entrepreneurial background in his family’s small business helps facilitate creative approaches to raising awareness, and designing actions to reduce alcohol-related problems at the community level.

Jennifer Smith is a senior attending physician in General Medicine & Primary Care at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital, the hub of a public health care system serving Chicago and its suburbs, and assistant professor of medicine at Rush Medical College. She leads development of health care services to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse for the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between mainstream health care and treatment for substance abuse, by bringing generalist health care providers into the continuum of prevention and treatment of tobacco, alcohol and other drug abuse. She currently leads the Cook County Bureau of Health Services’ participation in the CSAT funded Illinois Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment Initiative. An ongoing project supported by her fellowship with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse Program partners community members in addiction recovery with primary care physicians to support clinicians in identifying and counseling their patients with substance abuse problems. Recently ASAM certified in addiction medicine, she continues to practice and teach general internal medicine as one of a growing number of primary care providers who understand the vital role of bringing screening and intervention for substance use disorders into mainstream health care.

Linda began her lifework in substance abuse prevention over seventeen years ago as a result of the death of her three-year-old son, Trevor, at the wheels of a repeat drunk driver. Trevor was killed in La Center, Washington on August 16, 1986 as he sat beside his grandfather on a pony cart on their way to be in the La Center Days Festival Parade. Another young woman on a bike was killed, and Linda’s ex-father-in-law was severely injured while miraculously, her then six year old daughter, Katee, who had been on horseback behind the pony cart, was spared.

Because of this tragedy, Linda began to speak out for her children and all victims of alcohol involved crashes. Her commitment to this mission led to her voluntary service as coordinator of the Spokane County DUI Victims Panel (Panel). Her responsibilities increased when Linda became the executive director of the Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council (GSSAC) in July of 1993. In addition to the Panel, as Administrator for GSSAC’s Community Mobilization Against Substance Abuse (CMASA) project, her work expanded into community coalition organizing with an emphasis on a balanced approach of prevention, treatment, and law/justice. Under Linda’s leadership, the Panel and CMASA, as well as a Drug Free Communities Support Program, Washington Drug-Free Youth, Minors in Prevention and Reality Education And Choice Training (REACT) came together in a collaborative effort resulting in the formation of the GSSAC Prevention Center. In December of 2003, GSSAC relocated to a dedicated prevention center site with expanded office space, training and clearinghouse facilities, and their first lighted sign on one of Spokane’s most traveled arterials.

Linda’s leadership role in prevention continues to grow. She was recently reappointed to the Washington State Governor’s Council on Substance Abuse and is co-chair of the council’s standing sub-committee on prevention. She is active in the Washington State Meth Initiative providing leadership at the local and state level. Her fellowship project, organizing leaders in prevention in Washington State, resulted in the formation of Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention (WASAVP), a statewide advocacy/education organization. WASAVP celebrated several successes in the recent Washington State Legislative Session including the passage of House Bill 2014—which supports disclosure of alcohol/drug use when being treated in emergency situations.

Linda was honored in May 2004 with a community service award from the Washington State Department of Corrections for her work with the Social Responsibility Training Leadership Committee.

Recently selected to be an at large leader/mentor for the National Community Anti Drug Coalition Institute, Linda is excited to support training and advocacy for community coalitions across the nation.

Proud of her Eagles and Zags for going to the “Big Dance” this season, Linda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal studies with a certificate in public relations from Eastern Washington University and a Master of Arts in organizational leadership from Gonzaga University in Spokane.

Happily married to Richard, she is the mother of two wonderful children, Katee, 24, a graduate in Criminal Justice from Washington State University and now, a Loss Prevention Officer, and Nate, 16, an honor student, athlete and recent Eagle Scout. Dedicated to her family, Linda enjoys taking time for herself by painting (walls), backyarding (wildflowers and birds) and school volunteering (love kids).

As a probation administrator with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Scott provides policy guidance and technical assistance for federal probation and pretrial services offices throughout the country.  In addition to this generalist role, Scott oversees the several national initiatives relating to substance abuse programming in federal probation and pretrial services. 

Prior to his role with the federal government, Scott was the assistant director for Chesterfield County /City of Colonial Heights Community Corrections Services.  In this role Scott managed the operation of the Day Reporting Center and various other specialty probation programs.  The DRC provides an alternative to incarceration for non-violent substance abusing criminal offenders. The Day Reporting Center provides the court with an intensive outpatient drug treatment center, combined with probation supervision. In addition to overseeing the operations of the DRC, Scott co-authored a grant that was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide a pretrial diversion program for dually diagnosed individuals. Scott has managed the implementation of the federally funded Dual Treatment Track and managed all operations of this program in the role of Project Director.

Scott earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Messiah College in 1994. His career began with the Key Program, where he worked as a case manager in an assessment center for at-risk juveniles in Pittsfield, MA. Following his experience with youth, Scott worked for Offender Aid and Restoration, Inc. (OAR) in Richmond, VA. This position was located in a local jail and provided Scott with the opportunity to learn the intertwined nature of the substance abuse and criminal justice worlds. Following his experience with OAR, Scott returned to school and earned his MSW from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999. Following graduate school, Scott returned to the criminal justice field as a pretrial officer for Henrico County Community Corrections.