Course Listing - by Instructor
| Name | Biography |
|---|---|
| Angie Asa-Lovstad | Angie Asa-Lovstad helps groups turn meaningful ideas into action. As a facilitator, trainer, and leadership coach, she has spent more than 25 years supporting community initiatives and nonprofit leaders in working better together. Known for her engaging and grounded style, Angie creates spaces where people can think clearly together, have honest conversations, and move from discussion to practical momentum. She believes leadership begins by connecting people to what matters, sparking new understanding, and igniting action. She's also an avid reader and a proud caretaker of a houseplant collection that may be slightly outgrowing her windows-daily reminders that growth takes patience, attention, and the right conditions. |
| Brent Blackburn | Brent is a Certified Prevention Specialist that has over 30 years of experience in alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention, having worked with communities in every corner of the nation – from small local groups to state and national organizations. Brent got involved in prevention after the loss of a family member, who struggled with addiction. He is committed to teaching people how to create lasting change regarding the problems they face, he uses his extensive background when training people how to become advocates for change on a local, state and national level, guiding them through the process of developing practical strategies for addressing the issues that people encounter in their communities every day. He is a developer, designer and practitioner of training and facilitation. He has worked directly with youth and adults for more than thirty years. He started as a volunteer facilitator, learning the foundational elements and principles of facilitation. He has worked in a variety of capacities throughout my career as a volunteer, trainer, team leader, coalition director, program director and executive director engaging with diverse people on a regular basis. As a trainer and facilitator he utilizes many different teaching styles and methods, primarily using an interactive style to engage participants in their learning process. He has also delivered content-focused learning to provide participants in-depth understanding of specific topics. In his work, participants most appreciate his authenticity, flexibility, ability to connect and problem solving abilities. Brent currently serves as the Executive Director of Extreme Youth Leadership working to create connections in the community that will reduce substance use, engaging young people to serve their schools and communities as well as developing them into leaders. Brent has years of experience in creating customized training for young people and adults. He is known for his engaging and interactive style of training and has broad experience in leading both in-person and online training. |
| Dave Closson | Dave Closson, the owner of DJC Solutions, LLC, a consulting company dedicated to serving substance misuse prevention professionals, law enforcement officers, and military veterans across the United States. With a focus on sustainable habits, aligned experiences, and next-level excellence, Dave helps others achieve their full potential. As the author of "Motivational Interviewing for Campus Police" and one of the few Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) #StillServing Heroes nationwide, Dave is a nationally recognized expert in his field. He was the very first Director of the Mid-America Prevention Technology Transfer Center, where he served as a prevention catalyst, empowering individuals and fostering partnerships to promote safe, healthy, and drug-free communities. Dave's unique experience in substance misuse prevention comes from serving as a university police officer at Eastern Illinois University and being deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his year in Iraq with his infantry battalion and recon team, Dave earned the Combat Infantryman's Badge and was awarded two Army Commendation Medals (one for valor and one for meritorious service). With a Master's in Technology, Training and Development, and a Bachelor's in Environmental Biology, Dave is a lifelong learner who is committed to pushing his own limits and helping others do the same. Through training, coaching, and consulting, Dave is making a difference in the lives of those he serves and helping them achieve lasting transformation. |
| Kelly Hamman | Kelly Hamman, LCSW, is the Trauma Treatment Training Specialist for Arkansas Building Effective Services for Trauma (ARBEST), a statewide program to provide evidence-based care to traumatized children. ARBEST is a program of the Psychiatric Research Institute of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Kelly received her Master’s Degree in social work from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock in 2008 and Bachelor’s degree in social work from Arkansas State University 2003. She has extensive experience in providing evidenced-based treatments to children and families who have experienced trauma and is nationally rostered in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), for which she is a training consultant and in the process of becoming a national trainer, and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), for which she is a state trainer. Kelly is also a certified infant mental health therapist and Zero to Three Certified Trainer for DC: 0-5. Kelly has been able to support other clinicians in their work with families who have experienced trauma through becoming a trainer in Components for Enhancing Clinician Experience and Reducing Trauma (CE-CERT). |
| Bill Hansen | Dr. William B. Hansen received an honors Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah in 1974, a Master of Science degree in 1977, and a Ph.D. in 1978 in social psychology, both from the University of Houston. He has served on the faculty at UCLA (1978-1984), the University of Southern California (1980-1989) and Bowman Gray School of Medicine (1989-1996). He has been the Principal Investigator or Project Director on numerous grants and contracts and is a widely recognized expert in alcohol and drug prevention. He has written numerous curricula for school and community-based prevention, including Project SMART, Project STAR, and All Stars. He has authored over 150 articles in scientific journals on research and evaluation methods, prevention theory, and strategies for successful prevention practice. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Society for Prevention Research "Science to Practice" award, recognizing his contribution to designing evidence-based approaches to prevention that can be used in real world settings. In 2013, he was named a Fellow of the Society for Prevention Research. |
| Various Instructors | |
| Caitlyn Johnson | Caitlyn is a licensed certified social worker with 10 years of experience in integrated behavioral health, care coordination, and medical social work. A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with both a BSW and MSW, Caitlyn currently serves as a project manager on multiple grants for the Arkansas Behavioral Health Integration Network (ABHIN). Specializing in program development, brief intervention, harm/stigma reduction, and suicide prevention, Caitlyn is dedicated to enhancing inclusive mental health services in Arkansas, driven by both professional expertise and personal experience as a clinician and consumer of mental health care in the state. |
| Alison Oliveto | Alison Oliveto, Ph.D., is Professor, Vice Chair for Research and Director of the Center for Addiction Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Oliveto is a behavioral pharmacologist by training. For almost 3 decades, she has been primarily focused on researching potential medications and evidence-based behavioral interventions to improve treatments for opioid, cocaine and/or methamphetamine use disorders. Having become increasingly frustrated with the life-long struggle drug use disordered patients face, Dr. Oliveto started shifting her efforts toward investigating effective prevention strategies. Given the opioid crisis and rise in young people using prescription drugs such as opioids, Dr. Oliveto is working on the development of an effective, easily-accessed gamified adolescent prescription drug misuse prevention intervention with UAMS colleagues and Little Rock Games. She leads the UAMS team, partnering with Midsouth and OSAMH, to expand the capacity of the Statewide Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup, which guides effective prevention efforts in the state. |
| Stacy Ruse | Stacy Ruse, LPC, is a globally recognized trauma-expert, trainer, consultant, and author who teaches and spreads heart-based therapy practices using IFS, EMDR, & Somatic therapies with a transpersonal twist. Visit the Aglow Counseling website or learn more at StacyRuse.com. |
| Josh Seezs | Josh Seezs is a Certified Social Worker-Private Independent Practice (CSW-PIP), Clinician, Master Trainer Consultant at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School in Center City, MN. Josh also serves on the Board of Directors at Central Minnesota Mental Health Center (CMMHC). He is certified in Motivational Interviewing and is experienced in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and suicide prevention. He treated co-occurring disorders and served Veterans and their families for fourteen years at the St. Cloud Veterans Affairs Health Care System. With a passion for helping others achieve their goals, Josh employs evidence-based techniques to guide individuals towards positive change. He is a graduate of George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. |
| Kim Shuler | Kim Shuler, LCSW contributes more than 20 years of experience as a clinician and administrator working in a variety of integrated behavioral health settings. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of ABHIN and as Project Director on three Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) projects. Ms. Shuler has extensive experience in training behavioral health providers and care teams, building coalitions, conducting needs assessments, and developing strategic and business operation plans. She is a certified behavioral health consultant trained through the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Ms. Shuler has demonstrated success developing, implementing, and managing day-to-day operations of integrated behavioral health programs across multiple settings, including nearly a decade serving as Director of Behavioral Health in a large FQHC. |
| Ben Tanzer | Ben Tanzer, AM is an Emmy-award winning coach, creative strategist, podcaster, writer, teacher, advisor, mentor, and social worker who has been helping nonprofits, publishers, authors, small business and career changers tell their stories for 30 years. He currently serves as Principal, HEFT Creative Strategies, where he believe in helping human beings and organizations be their best selves through story and has worked with a range of organizations and individuals including Leo Burnett, Content R|S, Koan, FRIENDS, Chapin Hall, LemonAd Stand, Story Jam Studio, Children Trust Michigan, TORANA group, The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence, Modern Capital Concepts, DJC Solutions, Inc., and Gardner Philanthropy Consulting, LLC. He is also honored to work as a TMI Leadership Trainer for The Montana Institute. Ben is a college professor as well, and works as a Lecturer at Lake Forest College, where he teaches LOOP 202: 21st Century Development and Liberal Arts and The Workplace and an Adjunct Professor at Roosevelt University where he teaches Composition I and II. He also formerly served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago, where he taught Self-Management and Freelancing. Previously Ben worked at Prevent Child Abuse America from 2007-2016, including serving as the Senior Director of Chapter Services and Strategic Communications respectively. While there, he built the organization's social media presence, wrote and managed grants from the CDC and Doris Duke, led strategic planning and board retreats, and co-scripted the 2010 Emmy award-winning Ounce of Prevention of Florida "Prevent Child Abuse" public service campaign. |