The New England Prevention Technology Transfer Center team recently attended the 2023 National Prevention Network Conference, held in Birmingham, Alabama.  Many members of our PTTC team were featured in workshops and presentations throughout the conference.

Co-Director, Erin Burnett, and New England PTTC evaluators Megan Hawkes and Kim Magoon of Public Consulting Group presented a workshop entitled “Changing Needs of the Prevention Workforce from Pre- to Post-Pandemic” In this workshop, Erin, Kim, and Megan presented on the work of our PTTC to continuously assess the training, technical assistance, and professional development needs of the New England prevention workforce. 

Director Scott Gagnon and Training & Technical Assistance Coordinator Sarah Johnson presented a workshop on the New England PTTC’s Research and Design Fellowship program.  They were joined by Dan Fitzgerald, past RAD Fellow and Research Mentor for the current RAD cohort.  The presentation provided an overview of the RAD Fellowship program, how the program connects with the New England PTTC’s technical assistance priorities, and a survey of the prevention technical assistance products produced by all three of the RAD Fellows cohorts.

Director Scott Gagnon was a part of the closing plenary for the 2023 NPN Conference, focused on cannabis policy and Prevention.  Scott joined a panel that included the prevention directors for the state of Maine and Washington, Megan Scott and Sarah Mariani.  Scott’s presentation discussed the importance of cannabis policy literacy amongst the nation’s prevention workforce, and how that will inform successful cannabis prevention strategies. 

The New England PTTC team were pleased to join colleagues from the other regional PTTCs, to attend the workshop from the PTTC Network’s BOLD (Building Our Leadership in Diversity) Fellows.  The BOLD Fellows presented a workshop on their capstone project, which is an inventory of culturally relevant, evidence-based and promising prevention programs for Black/African-American populations.  The inventory covers three age groups: adolescents, college-aged young adults, and older adults.  In addition to the workshop BOLD Fellows held poster sessions in the conference exhibit hall. 

Finally, the big highlight for all of the PTTCs at the conference, was receiving the Award of Excellence from the National Prevention Network.  This award was presented to the PTTC Network to recognize the important contributions of the regional and national PTTC centers to the state prevention networks and their prevention workforces across the country. 

The 2023 NPN Conference was a very fulfilling and rewarding experience for the New England PTTC team.  See everyone in 2024 in Arizona!