Our team of seasoned professionals combines rich content knowledge with hands-on experience providing quality training and technical assistance.
Management and Administration
Carol Oliver
Director
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Carol Oliver successfully led the training and technical assistance component of SAMHSA’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technology for eight years, overseeing the delivery of workforce training to more than 44,000 practitioners and capacity-building assistance to more than 14,000 people across the United States.
Chelsey Goddard
Senior Advisor
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Chelsey Goddard directed SAMHSA’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies for the past 8 years, building client capacity and producing measurable results. She provides conceptual leadership, anticipates challenges, and formulates innovative ideas that result in effective, responsive, and timely services and systems.
Melanie Adler
Products and Marketing Director
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Melanie Adler has spent the past 25 years developing a broad range of knowledge products, both in print and online, to prevent substance misuse and other behavioral health problems. As products director for SAMHSA’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies, she oversaw the Center’s award-winning online learning program.
Shannon Cassidy
Project Coordinator
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Shannon Cassidy is an experienced project coordinator with expertise in on-site and virtual event management, client communications, executive support, and efficient program operations. Working closely with colleagues, she helps advance business development goals, oversees database management, contributes to the development and dissemination of materials, and plays a key role in client outreach.
Anina Estrada
Distance Learning Coordinator
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Anina Estrada helps to coordinate the sales and delivery of PS@EDC’s distance learning opportunities, providing direct support to course participants. She also maintains the dynamic sections of the PS@EDC website.
Subject Matter Experts
Rebecca Bishop
Mental health promotion | Problem gambling | Violence prevention
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Rebecca Bishop has worked for more than 10 years providing training and technical assistance to support the prevention of substance misuse, problem gambling, and violence. She currently works as the problem gambling lead for the Massachusetts Technical Assistance Partnership for Prevention. Before coming to EDC, she served as director of community mobilization and prevention for the Boston Public Health Commission’s Bureau of Recovery Services.
Kim Dash
Evidence-based substance misuse prevention for adolescents and young adults | Research and evaluation methods | Science-based innovation in public health
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Kim Dash excels at collaborating with states and communities to develop capacity in participatory monitoring and evaluation methods. She successfully led SAMHSA’s Service to Science initiative—a national endeavor dedicated to building the evaluation capacity of organizations implementing innovative, field-grown programs.
Sandra Del Sesto
SAPST / Ethics training | Strategic planning | Workforce development
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Sandra Del Sesto is a co-author of the Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist Training (SAPST) and PS@EDC’s Prevention Ethics courses. For over 35 years, she has provided community and strategic planning, program development, and capacity building in all areas of prevention practice. Currently, she serves on the advisory boards of the National Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC), the New England PTTC, and the Latino PTTC. She is a RI delegate to the International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium and past co-chair of its Prevention Committee.
Shai Fuxman
Evaluation | Opioid overdose prevention | School-based prevention
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Shai Fuxman is an experienced researcher in the fields of education and public health, with expertise in opioid and other substance abuse prevention and intervention, youth development, program evaluation, and cross-cultural relations. He is especially interested in the promotion of positive development among youth from marginalized communities.
Kris Gabrielsen
Evidence-based prevention | Harnessing virtual platforms for prevention | SAPST | Strategic planning | Workforce development
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Kris Gabrielsen has worked in the substance abuse prevention field for over 30 years. She was the Associate Director of the Western Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies, co-authored the original Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist Training curriculum, and co-authored the textbook, Substance Abuse Prevention: The Intersection of Science and Practice. She works with states and communities to bridge the gap between research and practice, assisting prevention professionals in maximizing their effectiveness.
Jessica Goldberg
Facilitation | Strategic planning | Sustainability
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Jessica Goldberg is an accomplished designer and deliverer of in-person and virtual trainings that address topics ranging from collaboration across health sectors to identifying and addressing health disparities. As a former CAPT T/TA specialist, she worked closely with states and community coalitions to adopt and apply SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework.
Heidi Kar
Trauma | Violence prevention
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Heidi Kar is a licensed clinical psychologist and cross-cultural/international public health expert, bringing expertise in the intersections of trauma experiencing, violence perpetration, and substance use disorders. She develops interventions, conducts research and evaluation, and serves as a subject matter expert on national and international committees, working across low-resourced communities within the United States and across the developing world.
Chuck Klevgaard
Opioid overdose prevention | School-based prevention | Underage drinking
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Chuck Klevgaard designs and implements customized in-person and online trainings that meet the prevention needs of diverse audiences. He has developed training materials and provided technical assistance to states, tribes, community agencies, and municipalities to prevent opioid overdose and its related consequences, including working with first responders to administer naloxone.
Debra Morris
Public health workforce and organizational development | School-based prevention
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Debra Morris has more than 30 years of experience bringing together cross-sector agencies to create unified service delivery models. She also delivers TA services and leads training programs on health disparities, cultural competency, perinatal substance abuse prevention, and engaging and mobilizing communities to implement environmental prevention strategies and produce systems change.
Rachel Pascale
Facilitation | School-based prevention | Training design and delivery
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Rachel Pascale coordinates the development of high-quality trainings and support resources to build the professional capacity of behavioral health and K-12 education practitioners. In this work, she oversees the entire lifecycle of training and resource development, including needs assessment and analysis, content review and synthesis, design, marketing, and facilitation.
Gisela Rots
Leadership development | Trauma | Youth marijuana use
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Gisela Rots has more than 15 years of experience in the public health field working to prevent underage drinking, opioid misuse, and other substance misuse problems. Her expertise includes integrating trauma-informed approaches into prevention, developing social marketing campaigns, managing award-winning training programs, providing training and technical assistance to state agencies and community coalitions, and developing cross-sector partnerships.
