2009 Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Section Award Winners
APHA
By Andre Stanley
Section Leadership Award
Linda Bosma, PhD – Since the day Linda Bosma became a member of the ATOD Section, she has been actively engaged in both the content area (especially alcohol prevention and advocacy) and the executive function of the Section. She quickly climbed the ladder within the Section as a voice of advocacy and a “will do” member of the Section. For the last three years, Dr. Bosma has distinguished herself serving as the Program Chair of the Section’s Annual Meeting program, which consists of 70 scientific and poster sessions. She has navigated challenges successfully within APHA, distinguished herself within the larger organizational structure of APHA to ensure that the voice of the Section is heard within the executive structure and served as a voice of action within APHA to the larger public health community. For 2010 Dr. Bosma has been selected to serve on the APHA Annual Meeting Executive Planning Committee.
Community-Based Leadership Award
Michael Prelip, DPA – Michael Prelip’s keen commitment to ATOD issues was apparent during our first telephone call. As the UCLA School of Public health‘s Community Services Practicum coordinator, Dr. Prelip said that, “too often ATOD, especially alcohol and drug issues, go unrecognized as public health issues. Yet, truly they emerge as central to a wide range of community health issues.” Dr. Prelip brings life to this commitment by placing UCLA public health graduate students in community public health organizations which reflect the intersection of alcohol and drug problems and public health systems whose staff and organizations are trained to recognize and intervene throughout Los Angeles County. In addition to serving as the UCLA School of Public Health’s practicum coordinator to place Master’s of Public Health students in community public health placements as graduate students, Dr. Prelip has been actively involved in ATOD issues at the community level throughout his career. His community-level commitments include his service as vice chair of the Watts Healthcare Corporation’s Board of Directors, which supports the House of Uruhu (Swahili for freedom) and the Lumpkin House; two residential and outpatient drug treatment facilities in South Los Angeles.
College-Based Leadership Award
Erin English, MPH – Erin English is the former Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Prevention Coordinator at the University of Georgia. She graduated from Erskine College in South Carolina with a BA in psychology and earned her MPH from the University of Georgia. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist. Her areas of specialization include alcohol, tobacco and other drug education and risk reduction. Ms. English is part of the John Fontaine, Jr. Center for Alcohol Awareness and Education.
Four the past four years Ms. English took on the primary responsibility for assessing student risk for substance abuse and related psychological problems on the university’s main campus. She supervised the alcohol and other drug health educators and interfaced with the university administration around ATOD issues within the student population. She conducted psycho-educational group sessions to NCAA Division-1 athletes about alcohol and other drug use and interactions with the sports culture on campus. She also instructed a monthly risk-reduction course related to alcohol and drug-related legal infractions called PRIME for Life and managed the implementation of an online alcohol education course called MyStudentBody.com. This course is accessed by approximately 6,500 UGA students annually.
Ms. English returned to school last fall to begin a doctoral program in counseling at Auburn University. While she completes her studies, she will continue her work in the ATOD field.
John D. Slade, MD, Memorial Advocacy Award
Kimberlee Homer Vagadori, MPH – Kimberlee Homer Vagadori has been passionately working in tobacco control advocacy her entire professional life. She has been a pioneer in creating coalition-based, sustainable policy change on college campuses as well as utilizing innovative approaches to ensuring industry monitoring in communities throughout the country. Through dedicated leadership, creative use of media advocacy, and inclusion of community and student-based coalitions, Ms. Vagadori continues to demonstrate her mastery of advocacy-based techniques as well as her passion for public policy change. In addition to creating multiple publications on tobacco-free college policy, global tobacco issues, and college policy campaign organizing, she has an extensive history of leadership throughout the nation. As a national expert on tobacco on college campuses, Ms. Vagadori provides perfected advocacy skills and policy know-how in all she does. From continually providing technical assistance and support to numerous colleges throughout the nation to advocating for tobacco-free campuses to conducting annual trainings for college students working on policy initiatives, Ms. Vagadori demonstrates the power and influence that a dedicated advocate can have on the world of tobacco control. This influence is well understood within the field where she has presented at over 60 conferences and trainings on tobacco-free advocacy and organizing on college campuses including the World Conference on Tobacco or Health and the National Conference on Tobacco or Health.
Currently, in addition to her extensive college policy advocacy work, Ms. Vagadori manages a national project that monitors tobacco industry funding of academic research. Through this advocacy-based campaign, her project is changing the influence the tobacco industry has had on academic departments and campuses throughout the country. With such a political and often contentious topic, Ms. Vagadori has had to display the utmost patience, political and policy savvy, and expert-level media advocacy skills in addition to maintaining a network of world-renowned experts on tobacco issues. Through her leadership and resourcefulness she has made a dramatic impact on the field of tobacco control and raised the level of discussion regarding tobacco industry funding.
Without a doubt, Kimberlee Homer Vagadori is an outstanding public health advocate and policy organizer. She has repeatedly led communities, college students, and public health advocates through successful policy campaigns with the passion, dignity and resourcefulness worthy of recognition and praise.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Thomas Babor, PhD – Thomas Babor is a professor at the University of Connecticut and over the past few decades has made major contributions to the area of addictions. His work is careful and thoughtful, of exceptional caliber and high quality and also broad in scope and implications. These global and significant contributions have included research, research application and practice, program development and testing, and policy development, and public health advocacy. His contributions have been in the areas of alcohol and other drugs, and the results of his research and related activities in the areas of policy and brief interventions have implications and application for tobacco control and smoking cessation and also other public health arenas.
He was, and continues to be, the lead or key player on a number of WHO affiliated projects. For example, he led the team of 16 researchers that produced Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity (T. Babor, et al., 2003, published by Oxford U. Press). The first production run was quickly sold out, and the book has been translated into a number of languages. It is considered an essential resource for alcohol epidemiology as well as prevention and policy planning. A key feature of this book is the systematic evaluation of 32 prevention strategies. The results of this evaluation are used extensively in policy discussions and are unique since a parallel tool is not evident in other health arenas. This feature provides a template for other public health issues. The 2003 book is currently being revised and updated, with Dr. Babor as the lead, and with scheduled publication early in 2010 by Oxford U. Press.
Dr. Babor is the associate editor-in-chief of the journal Addiction, which has one of the highest impact ratings among journals in this field, and is actively sought as the venue for new and longer-term researchers to publish their work. He serves as mentor for many students and young scholars who benefit from his extensive knowledge and skills and willingness to share his time and expertise. He is also actively sought by various governmental bodies and international groups for his input on screening and brief interventions, advertising controls, and many other high priority areas of public policy.