Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs
Section Newsletter
Winter 2004

From the Chair

Our Annual Program in San Francisco was a huge success, with ATOD sessions very well attended – many thanks to all of the presenters for providing high quality sessions. The ATOD booth received third prize for best booth, thanks to the volunteer efforts of the Marin Institute. It was a full house at the ATOD awards ceremony, and we had a particularly entertaining acceptance speech by Stan Glantz, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

My heartfelt appreciation also to Section Councilors, Governing Councilors, Section Officers, and Committee Chairs for devoting their considerable time and expertise to creating a dynamic ATOD Section. Special thanks also to several people who volunteer substantially more of their time than we have a right to ask for: Gabrielle Denmead for the ATOD-specific program and ongoing Web site coordination; Jamie Chriqui as Section Secretary; Mary Brolin as Newsletter Editor; Marilyn Daley as List-serv Coordinator; and Barry Bleidt for his superb efforts in the daunting job of coordinating our Annual Program.

During the Annual Meeting, the Section leadership was invited to a special meeting with Drug Czar John Walters to discuss issues of common concern. We are planning a follow-up meeting with Director Walters at our mid-year meeting in Washington, D.C.

In order to keep all of the ATOD Section better informed about abstract submission and review, and to strengthen our advocacy efforts, we will occasionally send e-mails to the full membership. We will also send reminders about upcoming elections with more in-depth candidates’ statements.

Our priority this year is increased advocacy efforts. We will be working for more visibility for ATOD issues within APHA. If you have a policy issue for which you would like ATOD support, please e-mail me at <dianac@parca.org>.


Diana Conti
Chair

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ATOD Section Announces Award Winners

San Francisco - The winners of the 2003 Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Section awards were announced at the ATOD Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony last November in San Francisco. These individuals were chosen because of their noteworthy contributions to the ATOD field and their commitment to reducing overall alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. In each category, the winners exhibited outstanding leadership or produced an outstanding effort to reduce alcohol, tobacco or other drug use, which resulted in significant change within a targeted community. This year’s winners constituted a slate of overachievers who have addressed wide-ranging ATOD issues.

The following is a summary of the 2003 ATOD Section award winners.

Community-Based Leadership Award (two awards presented)

• The first Community-Based Leadership Award was presented to Johnnetta Davis-Joyce, newly appointed director of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation’s Center for Policy Analysis and Training. In this capacity, Joyce is responsible for planning and managing the training and technical support to all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.



• The second award went to Rick Stoddard, a community tobacco control advocate from Webster, Mass. who lost his wife because of a tobacco-related illness. That event changed Stoddard's life forever. He wanted people to know what happened to his wife and how it affected his family. He also wanted people to know that the same thing could happen to them. He wanted kids never to start smoking. As a result, Stoddard became a tireless crusader for tobacco control. His story was so compelling that he was selected to appear in a series of ads sponsored by the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. Presently, Stoddard travels around the country spreading his message to young people in schools about the dangers of tobacco.

College-Based Leadership Award (two awards presented)

• The first College-Based Leadership Award went to Linda Major, director of Student Involvement at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. In that capacity, she directs all student activity programs and departments on the campus. Before going to the University of Nebraska, Major had over 20 years of experience in community substance abuse prevention with a focus on environmental changes to improve policies, enforcement and practices. Major has been a model of how to weld research, scientific knowledge and advocacy practice to form an extremely sophisticated effort to reduce alcohol problems at her campus, in the surrounding city and now, statewide.



• The second award was presented to John Smeaton, MD, chief student affairs administrator at Lehigh University, director of the A Matter of Degree program to reduce high-risk drinking and co-chair of the Lehigh University/City of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) coalition to reduce alcohol problems on campus and in the city. Smeaton has taken the unusually long-term perspective (and personal commitment) in looking at how the campus and community cultures regarding alcohol could be changed and plugged away at building campus/community coalitions to create new policy, social norms and behavioral changes. He turned Lehigh into a model of university commitment to handling alcohol (and other substance abuse) problems in a collaborative, planned, persistent fashion and has been a role model for optimism, clear thinking and leadership in persistently addressing this issue.

John D. Slade, MD Memorial Advocacy Award

• The Honorable Sila María Calderón, Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, was presented with the John D. Slade, MD Memorial Advocacy Award. Gov. Calderón is a long-time advocate for alcohol control policies. She demonstrates strong executive leadership through her commitment to improve the quality of life in Puerto Rican communities. She encourages community members to take ownership of the regulations that shape their lives and strives to work in positive ways to increase their participation in local activities. The Governor not only plays a leadership role, she also participates actively and is visible in all facets of community life (church, school, social, government and industry), encouraging young people and setting a positive example for the leaders of tomorrow.

Lifetime Achievement Award

• The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Stanton Glantz, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF,) where he is also co-leader of the Tobacco Control Program at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. Glantz is no stranger to controversy; he seeks it out. His work in exposing the tobacco industry's lies is legendary. He helped expose what the tobacco industry knew and when it knew it with regard to the dangers of cigarette smoking and its link to lung cancer. He is a crusader for smoke-free policies in restaurants and bars. His work proved that such policies enhance restaurant revenue and led to a restaurant and bar smoking ban in California. Because Hollywood is such a powerful channel for promoting a lethal addiction that kills five million people worldwide each year, he is appealing to writers and producers to get smoking out of the movies.

The ATOD Section congratulates all of its award winners and we hope the selection of these individuals inspires you in your pursuit of excellence in all ATOD prevention and treatment efforts. Now is the time to start thinking about nominations for the 2004 ATOD Section awards. If you would like to nominate someone you think is worthy of any of our awards or for more information, please contact André Stanley at <stanleag@dhec.sc.gov>.

André Stanley, MPH
Awards Committee Chair

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Tobacco Control Advocates: Save The Date!

The University of California, San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education announces a one-day workshop for community-based advocates on using tobacco industry documents for advocacy. This workshop will cover:

• Introduction to tobacco industry documents;



• Hands-on practice searching tobacco industry documents databases under the supervision of expert documents researchers;



• Examples of ways in which the documents can be of use for public health work in your community; and



• Opportunities to meet and brainstorm with top documents researchers and other advocates.

Date: Saturday, June 19, 2004.
Place: University of California, San Francisco Kalmanovitz Library, 530 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California.
Cost: $25 registration fee to reserve your place, refundable upon completion of workshop (workshop is limited to 40 participants). Lunch and resource materials will be provided.

For information about registering for the workshop, please contact: Dr. Valerie Yerger at (415) 476-2784.

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ATOD Section Web Site

The ATOD Section Web site is available at <www.northeastcapt.org/resources/apha>. Please check the site out and bookmark it for updated information relevant to our Section.

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Cover the Uninsured Week 2004

Nearly 44 million Americans live without health care coverage - including 8.5 million children. Last year, the number of people without health care coverage increased by more than 2 million, the largest one-year increase in a decade.

From May 10-16, 2004, Cover the Uninsured Week will feature events from coast to coast so that Americans can learn more about why this is a crisis. The fact is, 8 out of 10 people who are uninsured either work or are in working families. For them, minor illnesses can become major ones because health care is delayed, and one significant medical expense can wipe out a family's bank account.

That is why the American Public Health Association is pleased to announce our support of Cover the Uninsured Week 2004. Working with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and more than 800 national and local organizations, we hope to elevate this issue on the national agenda and in communities across the country.

For more information on Cover the Uninsured Week, visit <http://www.CovertheUninsuredWeek.org>. Sign up for updates and find events near you as activities are scheduled.

We encourage you to take part in this important effort. Stay tuned for more on Cover the Uninsured Week in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions regarding APHA's involvement in Cover the Uninsured Week, please contact Don Hoppert at <donald.hoppert@apha.org>.

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Join Us In Washington, D.C.!

Join us in discussing Public Health and the Environment at the APHA 132nd Annual Meeting & Exposition, Nov. 6-10, 2004, in Washington, D.C. Discounts are available for students! Please check the APHA Web site at <www.apha.org> for more information.

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NIAAA May Discontinue the Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Science Database (ETOH)

The news has been seeping out of Washington that NIAAA has decided to discontinue ETOH, <http://etoh.niaaa.nih.gov/>, the database they have funded for many years for the alcohol research field. If you would like to lend your support in trying to keep this valuable resource, please write a letter to Dr. T.K. Li, the Director of NIAAA, asking that the decision be reversed. The address is:

Dr. Ting Kai Li
Director
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
6000 Executive Boulevard - Willco Building
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-7003, U.S.A.

The fax number is: (301) 480-0872.

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We Need your E-mail Address!

Now that the Section and Special Primary Interest Group newsletters are online, it is imperative that APHA has your correct, most up-to-date e-mail address so we can notify you when your new Section/SPIG newsletter is posted.

CLICK HERE to learn more. You will be prompted for your username and password. Your username is your seven digit membership ID # (you can find it on the mailing label on your American Journal of Public Health or The Nation's Health). Your password is the first initial of your first name and your full last name (e.g., jsmith).

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ATOD Section List Serv

The ATOD Section has set up a list serv to help members communicate with each other on matters relating to policy, practice and research in the areas our Section covers. The list serv is a way to quickly inform others of developments, solicit assistance on matters of ATOD policy and its implementation and alert our members to opportunities and events of interest.

Control of the list serv will remain exclusively with the ATOD Section, and all listings will be kept strictly confidential. Messages will be disseminated only after the sender and message content have been "vetted" as appropriate for our Section.

To join the list serv, e-mail your name and e-mail address to the List Serv Coordinator, Marilyn Daley, at <daley@brandeis.edu>.

To provide a message for posting (after vetting), e-mail the material to the List Serv Coordinator, Marilyn Daley, at <daley@brandeis.edu>. You do not have to be a member of the List Serv to post messages.

Tell your colleagues about upcoming events, conferences, programs, research, opportunities or anything you are interested in.

If your e-mail address changes, or you wish to unsubscribe, e-mail Marilyn as well.

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Join APHA and the ATOD Section

To join the ATOD Section as a new APHA member, go to the APHA Web site at <www.apha.org>. When you join APHA, you can choose the ATOD Section as your primary or secondary Section. (One primary Section or SPIG is included in your APHA membership.

To join the Section if you are already an APHA member and would like to change SPIG or Section, send an e-mail to <membership.mail@apha.org>. Note that you should include your membership ID # (you can find it on the mailing label on your American Journal of Public Health or The Nation's Health; it's the first seven digit number)!

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Program and Abstracts Available

The program and abstracts from the 131st APHA Annual Meeting, Behavior, Lifestyle and Social Determinants of Health, are still available online at: <www.apha.org/meetings/future_past.htm>.

If you want to focus on the ATOD presentations, the ATOD Section program for the 131st Annual Meeting is still available at the ATOD Section Web Site.

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Conference Announcements

Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco’s 10th Annual Meeting
Feb. 18-21, 2004
Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort
Phoenix, Ariz.

For more information, please contact SRNT at 608-836-3787 ext. 148, or e-mail us at <meetings@srnt.org> or visit our Web site at <http://www.srnt.org>.


The Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM)
25th Anniversary Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions
March 24-27, 2004
Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel
Baltimore, Maryland

For more information, visit our Web site at <http://www.sbm.org/>


2004 ATSDR Partners in Public Health Meeting
"Strengthening Environmental Public Health"
March 29-April 2, 2004
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Atlanta, Ga.

For more information about the Partners Meeting, visit: <http://www.signup4.com/2004ATSDRPartners>.


Canadian Evaluation Society National Conference
"Evaluation: A Co-Operative Enterprise"
May 16-19, 2004
Radisson Hotel
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

For the first time ever, Saskatchewan will host the national Canadian Evaluation Society conference. Do plan to attend this important professional development event.

The title, "Evaluation: A Co-operative Enterprise," was chosen to reflect Saskatchewan's historic roots in co-operative development. The four themes are: working intersectorally, working with diverse populations, expanding methodological horizons, and building evaluation capacity.

For more information, visit <www.c2004.evaluationcanada.ca>.


Sixth Annual Child Health Services Research Meeting
June 5, 2004
San Diego
http://www.academyhealth.org/conferences/childhealth.htm


AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting
June 6-8, 2004
San Diego, CA
http://www.academyhealth.org/conferences/arm.htm

The Annual AcademyHealth Research Meeting brings together health services researchers, providers and key decision-makers to address the critical challenges confronting the health care delivery system.


27th Annual Scientific Meeting of the
Research Society on Alcoholism
June 26 – July 1, 2004
Vancouver, Canada
http://www.rsoa.org/meetings.htm

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2004 ATOD Section Leadership Roster

Please contact any officer for information and especially the committee chairs for areas in which you would like to become involved.

Chair:
Diana Conti
dianac@parca.org

Chair-Elect:
Fran Stillman
fstillma@jhsph.edu

Immediate Past Chair:
Norman Giesbrecht
norman_giesbrecht@camh.net

Secretary:
Jamie Chriqui
jchriqui@mayatech.com

Section Councilors:
Stella Aquinaga Bialous
stella@bialous.com

Linda Bosma
bosma@epi.umn.edu

Karen Gerlach
kgerlach@rwjf.org

Tom Greenfield
tgreenfield@arg.org

Ann Mahony
amahony@samhsa.gov

Ruth Malone
rmalone@itsa.ucsf.edu

John Noble
jnoble@shs.net

Governing Councilors:
Cheryl Cherpitel
ccherpitel@arg.org

Johnnetta Davis-Joyce
davis@pire.org

Laura Flinchbaugh
lflinchb@samhsa.gov

Traci Toomey
toomey@epivax.epi.umn.edu

Bob Vollinger
Bob.Vollinger@nih.gov

Action Board Representative:
Leonard Lamkin
Lenny_Lamkin@ama-assn.org

Annual Program Chair:
Barry Bleidt
bbleidt@rx.llu.edu

Moderator Coordinator:
Shereen Khatapoush
shereen@prev.org

Awards Chair:
André Stanley
stanleag@dhec.sc.gov

Communications Chair and Web Site Editor:
Gabrielle Denmead
gabrielle.denmead@verizon.net

Newsletter Editor:
Mary Brolin
mbrolin@har.org

List serv Coordinator:
Marilyn Daley
daley@brandeis.edu

Membership Chair:
Fran Stillman
fstillma@jhsph.edu

Nominations Chair:
Norman Giesbrecht
norman_giesbrecht@camh.net

Resolutions Co-Chairs:
Kris Bosworth
bosworth@u.arizona.edu

Richard Daynard
r.daynard@neu.edu

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Share Your News

This is your newsletter, so please send us information you would like to share with your colleagues. We're interested in summaries of conferences, commentaries on articles, research or policies and announcements about conferences. Have you recently changed jobs or accepted a new fellowship? Perhaps you keynoted a speech at a national meeting or were appointed to a national advisory committee or board. If you have important news, we'd like to hear about it and publish it in the APHA-ATOD Section Newsletter. Please e-mail your news to <mbrolin@har.org>, or fax to Mary Brolin at (617) 266-9271.

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