The Anticipation Builds for NASPA’s Strategies Conference

The Anticipation Builds for NASPA’s Strategies Conference

-Sean Fearns and Richard Lucey, Jr.

We always look forward to this time of year as we continue our partnership with NASPA—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and help to cosponsor its annual Strategies Conference. Attending this year’s conference in San Francisco affords us the opportunity to see longtime friends and colleagues, and develop new professional relationships with individuals and organizations from across the nation.

It promises to be a very busy and productive week at the conference for us as we participate in a variety of sessions in which DEA is either presenting or helped to organize. Here’s a brief summary of the conference sessions in which you can interact with DEA staff and/or see our resources:

 

Wednesday, January 17, 9:00am – 5:00pm (PT)

Join Rich Lucey, Dr. David Anderson, Dr. Shawnte Elbert, Dr. Allison Smith, Kelly Truesdell, and Dr. Katrin Wesner-Harts, as they present Orchestrating Drug/Alcohol Misuse Prevention Efforts: Tough Love for Meaningful Strategies. This full-day preconference session will provide an overview of the current scope of drug use among college students, current and emerging challenges in prevention, the role of campus leadership, critical elements of a comprehensive campus effort, prevention advocacy, and engaging state and local authorities, among other topics.

 

Thursday, January 18, 4:30pm – 5:30pm (PT)

Join Rich Lucey and Erin Ficker as they lead a roundtable discussion titled Assessing the Training and Other Resource Needs of the Field. During the session, Rich and Erin will facilitate conversation with attendees about training topics that are most helpful in supporting efforts to prevent drug misuse among college students and existing gaps in resources that are needed most in prevention efforts.

 

Thursday, January 18, 5:30pm – 7:00pm (PT)

Join us as we host a poster session on www.campusdrugprevention.gov, DEA’s website for professionals working to prevent drug misuse among college students. This session gives attendees the opportunity to not only learn about this resource, but also provide DEA with feedback about potential content for the site that would be beneficial to their prevention efforts.

 

Friday, January 19, 8:30am – 8:45am (PT)

Join us as we announce the winners of the 8th Annual Red Ribbon Week Campus Video PSA Contest, cosponsored by SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

 

Friday, January 19, 3:30pm – 5:00pm (PT)

Join Rich Lucey, Dr. Dolores Cimini, Dr. Jason Kilmer, Joan Masters, and Dr. Allison Smith for an extended workshop session titled Epic Fails in Prevention: Learning from Efforts That Don’t Work as Planned. This engaging and fun panel presentation will challenge definitions of “successful” and “unsuccessful” by highlighting the panelists’ respective “failed” efforts in preventing alcohol and other drug misuse among their campus's students. The critical importance of redefining success and deriving meaning from unsuccessful efforts will be highlighted and explored.

 

Saturday, January 20, 8:30am – 9:30am (PT)

Join Rich Lucey, Erin Ficker, and Dr. Allison Smith for Prevention with Purpose: The Importance of Strategic Planning and Considering Culture. This session will include an overview of DEA’s updated strategic planning guide for preventing drug misuse among college students, successes and challenges experienced by colleges and universities applying the Strategic Prevention Framework to their efforts; and the importance of considering culture across the SPF's five steps.

 

Lastly, don’t forget to check out DEA’s resources in the exhibit hall, all of which are intended to help support you in your efforts to prevent drug misuse among college students.

We offer our congratulations to NASPA for their amazing efforts in once again staging this event for student affairs professionals and other campus- and community-based staff. Best wishes for a great conference and thank you for everything you do to help ensure the safety and health of our nation’s college students!

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Sean Fearns joined DEA in 1998 as part of the team in the Office of Public Affairs that developed and opened the DEA Museum in 1999. In 2015, Sean was promoted to Chief of DEA’s Community Outreach and Prevention Support Section. In this capacity he is responsible for guiding a diverse and creative staff to develop and implement strategic national partnerships with other organizations that help educate the public on current drug threats facing the country, communicate the Administration’s key drug misuse prevention messages, and reduce the demand for those drugs.

Richard Lucey, Jr. is a Senior Prevention Program Manager in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Community Outreach and Prevention Support Section. In this role, Rich plans and executes educational and public information programs, evaluates program goals and outcomes, and serves as a policy and program advisor to the Section Chief and other DEA officials on drug abuse prevention and education programs. Rich formerly served as special assistant to the director for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and worked as an education program specialist in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.