2026 National Meeting Schedule
*Schedule is tentative and subject to change* All times in Eastern Daylight Time.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Breakout Sessions
Presenters:
Danielle Wolf, Indiana University Indianapolis
- Danielle Wolfe is a licensed social worker and Assistant Director of Substance Use Intervention Services in the Office of Health and Wellness Promotion at IU Indianapolis. She oversees the Collegiate Recovery Community, alcohol and other drug sanction programs, AOTD outreach and education, and coordinates student Health and Wellness Coaching. Her work focuses on building recovery-friendly systems that support student wellbeing, persistence, and success. A notable accomplishment includes leading three Recovery 5K events that have raised over $25,000 for student recovery scholarships.
Samantha Reitz, Indiana University Bloomington
- Samantha Reitz is the Collegiate Recovery Coordinator at Indiana University Bloomington, where she has led the Collegiate Recovery Community since December 2021. She earned her bachelor’s (2015) and master’s (2017) degrees in Criminal Justice from the University at Albany, SUNY, and has worked in substance use treatment and recovery in Indiana since completing her education. Samantha serves on the Board of Directors for Centerstone Health Services and Pathway to Recovery and is the Midwest Regional Representative for the Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE). As a family member impacted by substance use disorder, she brings both professional expertise and personal insight to her work.
Description:
If your campus earned a “recovery friendly” score today, would it pass—or reveal critical gaps? This session offers a recovery forward, practical roadmap for building recovery friendly campuses, even with limited resources. Participants will explore scalable strategies that move beyond stigma reduction to real action, including policy and practice changes, referral pathways, staff training, and campus community partnerships. The session also demystifies when and how to start or sustain a Collegiate Recovery Community or Program (CRC/CRP), highlighting readiness indicators, core components, and common pitfalls. Attendees will leave with clear, actionable next steps to strengthen recovery support within existing AOD prevention efforts.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how recovery support strengthens AOD prevention efforts.
- Identify practical steps to build recovery friendly campuses and CRCs/CRPs.
- Plan next steps for advancing recovery support on their campus.
Continuing Education Approval:
Presenters:
Cindy Clouner, HECAOD
- Cindy Clouner has served as the Managing Director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery since 2017. She joined HECAOD in 2015 as a prevention specialist, providing support for Generation Rx and serving as the Program Manager for the Ohio College Initiative. Before transitioning to HECAOD, Cindy spent eight years coordinating school and community-based prevention in Ohio. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Bowling Green State University and her Master of Public Health from The Ohio State University. Cindy is a licensed social worker and an Ohio Certified Prevention Specialist.
Logan Davis, HECAOD
- Logan Davis joined the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery in January of 2019 as the Outreach and Engagement Manager and transitioned into the Gambling Education Specialist role in February 2026. In Logan’s new role, he will help spearhead and coordinate HECAOD’s collegiate gambling efforts. Prior to working with HECAOD, Logan worked in fraternity and sorority life and has experience as a campus-based advisor and working at an (inter)national fraternal organization. Logan obtained his Bachelor of Arts from Murray State University (Go Racers!) and his Master of Arts in Higher Education from Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!).
Description:
You don’t need to be a “gambling expert” to prevention gambling-related harms among college students. In fact, you already possess the most important tools for the job. In this session, you will discover how to translate your existing mastery of alcohol and drug (AOD) prevention directly into the gambling space. This session will explore strategies used within HECAOD’s You Bet? curriculum, an evidence-informed gambling education program for students. Learn what leading gambling researchers and practitioners felt was critical for students to know about gambling and sports betting and how HECAOD was able to apply the evidence-based prevention principles used when addressing high-risk alcohol use to the topic of gambling. Leave this session with the language, knowledge and confidence to integrate gambling into your prevention portfolio.
Learning Objectives:
- Compare and contrast how existing evidence-based AOD prevention strategies can be adapted to prevent gambling related harms.
- Identify the role language plays in activating or reducing resistance among students.
- Describe 3 strategies for integrating gambling-related education into programming or conversations with students.
Continuing Education Approval:
Closing the Gap Between Services and Students: Perceptions That Shape Substance Use Help‑Seeking
Presenters:
Angel Benjamin, Missouri Partners in Prevention
- Angel Benjamin, MPH, is an early-career public health professional with a concentration in Health Promotion and Policy from the University of Missouri. She is passionate about promoting health and wellness among college students and currently works as a research assistant with Missouri Partners in Prevention. Her research focuses on alcohol and substance misuse among college students, bridging research and practice to improve student health and well-being.
Ashley Helle, Missouri Partners in Prevention
- Dr. Ashley Helle is a licensed psychologist and research professor at the University of Missouri. She is the Director of Engagement for the Missouri Center for Addiction Research and Engagement. Dr. Helle’s research program focuses on understanding barriers faced by higher education professionals, and she uses implementation science approaches to advance support tools and programs for professionals. Dr. Helle also provides provider training on evidence-based practices such as motivational interviewing, brief motivational interventions, and planning for best practices in alcohol prevention.
Joan Masters, Missouri Partners in Prevention
- Joan Masters is the Senior Project Director of Partners in Prevention and has led the organization since 2001. Joan is responsible for the training and technical assistance that PIP provides to the 28 member campuses and serves as the Primary Investigator for PIP’s grant projects. A frequent contributor to the Drug Enforcement Administratoions, Prevention with Purpose program, Joan is also the author of the “Fundamentals of Substance Misuse Prevention in Higher Education” course for new professionals. Joan assists campuses with coalition building, implementing evidence-based strategies, building peer education programs, and strategic planning. Joan is a Missouri Advanced Prevention Specialist and received both her Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in Education from the University of Missouri.
Description:
This session explores how college students think about and choose support sources for alcohol and cannabis use concerns. A large study at one institution examined how student perceptions of provider responsibility to treat, and provider knowledge of, substance concerns shape help-seeking choices. When students view providers as knowledgeable about, and responsible for, specifically addressing substance use, they are more likely to feel comfortable seeking support from them. The session highlights students’ preferred support sources and discusses strategies campuses can use to strengthen prevention, improve awareness of who offers support and where those services are available, and better connect students to support.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the most endorsed help-seeking sources for alcohol and cannabis use among college students.
- Explain how students’ perceptions of providers and their knowledge/responsibility to provide substance related support is related to student support seeking.
- Describe ways to improve student connectedness to services on campus.
Fentanyl-related Harm Reduction Strategies for Music Festivals: Perceptions from Southern California University Students
Presenters:
Jessica Liu, California State University, Long Beach
- Dr. Jessica Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Science at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Liu completed her postdoctoral research fellowship at the REACH Lab at Stanford University in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Health, and is a graduate of the Population Health Sciences PhD program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr Liu’s research focuses on adolescent and young adult health, substance use prevention, and school-based interventions. Dr. Liu is also very passionate about teaching and mentoring, and participates in programs to support first-generation and underrepresented students in STEM pursue higher education and research careers.
Alissa Salas, California State University, Long Beach
- Alissa Salas is a Master of Public Health student at California State University, Long Beach, where she serves as a Project Coordinator conducting mixed-methods research on fentanyl-related harm reduction among college students. She earned her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside. Her work focuses on evaluating campus-based fentanyl harm reduction interventions and college students’ perceptions of overdose prevention strategies in music festival settings. She plans to pursue a career in medicine while continuing to advance public health research and community-based prevention efforts.
Description:
In this session, we will present recent qualitative data from college students and recent graduates in Southern California on their perceptions of harm reduction resources used at music festival events. Illicit fentanyl lacing of pills is a major public health concern, especially impacting young adults. In conducting a needs assessment, we learned that there is a need for harm reduction education and resources at the campus-level for the large number of college students who frequent music festivals. We will discuss how our findings informed a large campus-wide harm reduction event at California State University, Long Beach, partnering with Student Health Services, tailored for safe spring break and music festivals.
Learning Objectives:
- To identify perceptions, knowledge, and use of fentanyl and other opioid-related harm reduction strategies among college students who partake in music festivals
- To understand substance use behaviors, as well as substance use safety measures college students engage in.
- To learn how to apply qualitative research findings to inform a college campus harm reduction intervention program specifically for the music festival setting.
Healing in Comunidad: Centering Culture, Connection, and Recovery in Higher Education
Presenters:
Liliana Spurgeon, University of New Mexico
- Liliana “Lily” Spurgeon is the Program Coordinator for the University of New Mexico Collegiate Recovery Center, where she leads culturally responsive, peer-driven programming that supports student recovery, harm reduction, and belonging. A first-generation Latina and person in recovery, Lily brings both lived and professional experience to her work in behavioral health. She is a Community Health Worker and Peer Support Specialist, and a graduate student in Public Administration at UNM. Lily is passionate about building inclusive recovery spaces that center culture, community, and connection for diverse student populations
Description:
College students are navigating evolving substance use trends, mental health challenges, and cultural pressures—yet many campus approaches still rely on models that don’t reflect their lived realities. This session explores how culturally grounded, harm-reduction approaches can better support diverse student populations by centering connection, identity, and belonging. Drawing from real-world implementation at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, participants will learn practical, peer-informed strategies to engage students who may not connect with traditional recovery spaces and build inclusive environments where healing happens in comunidad.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize how culture, identity, and lived experience shape substance use and recovery among college students.
- Integrate culturally grounded, harm-reduction approaches into campus programming.
- Design at least one strategy to create more inclusive, community-centered recovery spaces thatfoster belonging.
Continuing Education Approval:
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. – Breakout Sessions
Presenter:
K. Priyanka Silmi, The Ohio State University College of Medicine
- K. Priyanka Silmi is a mixed-methods public health researcher in The Ohio State University College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. Her research focuses on substance use, mental health, and health behavior among adolescents and young adults, with an emphasis on how psychosocial and structural factors shape substance use and help-seeking behaviors. She works with large-scale datasets, including the Healthy Minds Study and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, and uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Her work emphasizes equity-informed and community-engaged research to inform prevention, intervention, and student support strategies
Description:
Relative to the general population, college students are more likely to meet criteria for substance use disorders yet are less likely to seek treatment. Many students on campuses already have a substance use diagnosis, but less is known about this group, who may be at increased risk of continued use and co-occurring mental health problems within academic contexts. Using national data, this session examines shared and distinct correlates of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other drug use and discusses how findings can inform targeted, evidence-informed prevention, intervention, and recovery support strategies across diverse student populations.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will be able to describe the prevalence and patterns of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other drug use among college students with a substance use diagnosis.
- Participants will be able to identify both shared and substance-specific psychosocial and academic correlates (e.g., age, mental health, GPA, sexual minority status) associated with different types of substance use.
- Participants will be able to apply study findings to inform substance-specific, evidence-informed prevention, intervention, and recovery support strategies for college student populations.
Continuing Education Approval:
Presenters:
M. Dolores Cimini, University at Albany
- Dr. M. Dolores Cimini is a New York State licensed psychologist, Emerita Senior Research Scientist, and Founding Director of the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research at the University at Albany, SUNY. She has also served as the Director of the nationally recognized Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program. Dr. Cimini has led comprehensive efforts in research-to-practice translation at the University at Albany for more than three decades with over $15 Million in federal, state, and foundation grant support. The screening and brief intervention program developed by Dr. Cimini, the STEPS Comprehensive Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Program, has earned 13 national awards for best practices and health innovation.
Jessica Martin, University at Albany
- Jessica L. Martin is a licensed psychologist, a Research Fellow for the School of Education at the University at Albany, SUNY, and a Senior Research Associate for the Research Foundation for SUNY. She was a tenured faculty member in Counseling Psychology at the University at Albany for 11 years before transitioning to research roles and clinical work in private practice. Dr. Martin’s research expertise is in substance use and other health-risk behaviors among young adults and college students. Specifically, she investigates individual, psychosocial, cultural, and contextual risk and protective factors for substance use and co-occurring disorders and health-risk behaviors (e.g., disordered eating, risky sexual behavior) and health disparities as they relate to substance use. Dr. Martin has developed, implemented, managed, and evaluated brief interventions for alcohol use, with over $2.5 million in funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Dr. Martin is experienced in the training of mental health providers in addiction psychology and screening and brief interventions for substance use (SBIRT), having trained hundreds of students and professionals. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, and several book chapters in the areas of as well as an edited book entitled, Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment: A Practitioner’s Guide. Dr. Martin chairs the Education and Training Committee for the Society of Addiction Psychology (Division 50, American Psychological Association) and is a member of several journal editorial boards. Dr. Martin enjoys running, yoga, concerts, walking her dogs and spending time with her husband and two children.
Description:
In response to recent financial, staffing, and operational challenges faced by institutions of higher education in recent years, collegiate prevention and recovery professionals have increasingly been asked to do more with scarce or unavailable resources. This workshop will address strategies for accessing vital resources to support our work, including grant and foundation funding and strategic partnerships both within and outside of our college campuses. Participants will leave this session with an individualized strategic plan identifying actionable steps they can take to enhance their resources as well as tips for increased grant writing success with an aim of supporting long-term sustainability.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the types of resources available to support AOD prevention efforts, including grant and foundation funding and strategic partnerships within and outside of their institution of higher education.
- Develop an individualized strategic plan to enhance and diversify resources at their own institution.
- Articulate two tips for grant writing success.
Continuing Education Approval:
Presenter:
Nick Poling, Boise State University
- Dr. Nick Poling is the Fraternity and Sorority Life Program Director at Boise State University, where his work includes chapter advising, risk management, conduct response, and oversight of community initiatives, events, and assessment. Nick received his Masters in Student Affairs from Boston College and an EdD in Higher Education Administration from Idaho State University. Through these experiences, Nick has a deep understanding of how risk is shaped, and prevented, on campuses.
Description:
How is social media shaping risk-related behaviors and norms in fraternity and sorority life communities? This session explores original research on how patterns of social media use influence alcohol and drug use, measures of hazing, sexual assault mindsets, and chapter culture. Through this session, attendees will learn how passive and active media engagement, content exposure, and intensity of use uniquely impact student behavior before they even arrive on campus. Through an extensive data set, discussion, and application, participants will gain practical strategies to integrate digital wellbeing into prevention efforts across a variety of topics.
Learning Objectives:
- As a result of attending this session, participants will understand how different patterns of social media use can directly influence risk-related attitudes and behaviors among fraternity and sorority students.
- Attendees will be able to interpret key findings from a large-scale, multi-institutional dataset to identify how social media shapes pre-college norms, expectations, and behaviors that students bring into fraternity and sorority life.
- As a result of attending this session, participants will be able to apply evidence-informed strategies to integrate digital wellbeing and social media literacy into prevention efforts surrounding alcohol and drug use, hazing, and sexual violence, including identifying opportunities for intervention within their own campus contexts.
Continuing Education Approval:
2:00 – 3:30 p.m. – Keynote
Presenters:
Kimberly Boulden, PhD, University at Buffalo
- Dr. Kimberly Boulden is the Director of MATTERS within MATTERS Network, a division of UBMD Emergency medicine. She brings over 10 years of leadership experience to MATTERS and has worked at both the national and local levels to implement and scale harm reduction and recovery-supportive programming. Boulden’s leadership practice centers on effective systems change, transformative assessment, and sustainable community collaboration. She holds a doctorate in Education and has published research on effective university partnerships, stigma surrounding substance use disorder, and responsible computing best practices. From teaching to advising to admissions, Kimberly Boulden has worked across departments to build transformative and empowered learning communities. In addition to her work around substance use on campus, she sits on the board of directors for the Impossible Project, a nonprofit that supports educators as they integrate socially responsible teaching into their curriculum. Since 2020, Kimberly has worked with the University at Buffalo, a recipient of Mozilla Foundation’s “Responsible Computing Challenge” grant. She has worked with faculty in Computer Science and Engineering, History, Media Studies, Education, and English to implement interdisciplinary learning modules in the following classes: CSE 199 (Fall ’21, Fall ’22), CSE 440: Machine Learning and Society (Spring ’22), CSE 441: Ending White Supremacy Online (Spring ’23), DMS 309: Computing Technology as Art (Fall ’24), ENG 105: Achieving Linguistic Justice (Fall ’24) HS 199: Forging the Afro-Future, and ED 433: Critical Computational Literacy. She has presented at regional and national conferences on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching computing.
Description:
Students are increasingly turning to popular large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for health information, advice, and emotional support. In this session, we’ll prepare practitioners in higher education to better navigate this reality: unpacking how AI systems work, where human assumptions are codified in the system, and how the complex reality of our work might amplify existing tensions. Using case studies, participants will assess AI’s efficacy in providing mental health information and support, and leave with a practical understanding for navigating student AI use for behavioral health.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the basic mechanics of how machine learning models generate output, and identify at least two sources of bias (e.g., proxy variables, historical data gaps) that are especially consequential.
- Review current evidence on how young people use AI tools seek health information and “peer” support.
- Analyze case studies to understand AI’s efficacy in addressing the challenges many young people leverage it for, and identify emerging ethical considerations relevant to students increasing utilization of these tools.
- Generate at least one practical strategy for their campus, whether around staff training or departmental guidance, around student AI use for health and wellness.
Continuing Education Approval:
