Gearing Up for NASPA’s Strategies Conference

people meeting
Sean Fearns and Rich Lucey headshots
By Sean Fearns and Rich Lucey

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. We especially anticipated this year’s event because it is being convened in person in Boston, affording us the opportunity to see colleagues we haven’t seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and develop new professional relationships with individuals and organizations from across the nation. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic prohibits us from traveling to Boston to attend the conference in person.

The good news is we will be with you there in spirit and virtually through 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 12, 2:00pm – 4:30pm (ET)

Join Rich Lucey, Fran Harding, and Katrin Wesner-Harts, Ed.D., as they present Preventing Drug Misuse Among College Students: Getting Back to Basics to Move Us Forward. This preconference session will provide an overview of the current scope of drug use among college students; an examination of the Strategic Prevention Framework’s five steps; a review of the seven keys to a successful prevention program; lessons learned from a university health center, including successes, challenges, and outcomes; observations on COVID-19 and our prevention efforts moving forward; and resources from DEA to support your prevention efforts.
 

Thursday, January 13, 4:30pm – 5:30pm (ET)

Join Dave Closson as he leads a roundtable discussion titled Prevention with Purpose for Stakeholders in Higher Education. During the session, Dave will premiere a series of five new DEA resources related to Prevention with Purpose: A Strategic Planning Guide to Preventing
Drug Misuse Among College Students. These brief publications reframe the SPF for five stakeholder groups in higher education, specifically presidents and other senior administrators, student affairs professionals, faculty members, campus police and public safety personnel, and
community and technical colleges.
 

Friday, January 14, 3:30pm – 5:00pm (ET)

Join Rich Lucey, Dolores Cimini, Ph.D., Sally Linowski, Ph.D., Allison Smith, Ph.D., and Katrin Wesner-Harts, Ed.D., for an extended workshop session titled Mounting a Comprehensive Prevention Strategy to Mitigate AOD-Related COVID-19 Transmission as Students Return to Campus: Institutional, Statewide, and National Perspectives. While campuses across the nation are faced with serious health and economic challenges associated with alcohol- and other drug-related COVID-19 transmission, no single theory, practice, or policy exists to mitigate the dire consequences of such disease spread. This interactive panel presentation will examine AOD-related coronavirus transmission from campus, statewide, and national perspectives and will highlight how prevention science and comprehensive public health-informed practices, policy
efforts, and partnerships across AOD and allied health areas may inform our work as we enter a post-pandemic landscape.

 

Saturday, January 15, 11:30am – 12:30pm (ET)

Join Rich Lucey, Fran Harding, Dolores Cimini, Ph.D., Jason Kilmer, Ph.D., Allison Smith, Ph.D., and Katrin Wesner-Harts, Ed.D., for Everything You Wanted to Ask About Preventing Drug Misuse Among College Students…But Were Afraid to Ask. During the course of this
Strategies Conference, no doubt you learned a lot, gathered new resources, and made new professional connections. Due to this information overload, you likely have lots of questions and possible ideas to take back to the campus and community. This session provides you an
opportunity to ask those questions and bounce around those ideas, getting answers and feedback from a panel of experts with years and years (and years) of experience in the prevention field.

Come prepared for a lighthearted yet earnest conversation about preventing drug misuse among college students.

But wait, there’s more! On Friday, January 14, be on the lookout for our virtual announcement of the winners of this year’s Red Ribbon Week Campus Video PSA Contest, cosponsored by SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. 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 pivoting during the past month to help ensure this conference is available not only to those who are able to travel to Boston, but also to those of us back at our home bases so we can participate virtually. 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.

 

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.