Concurrent Forums @ 10:30-11:30; Friday, October 30, 2009

• Panel of representatives from Liquor Control Board, Department of Health and the Washington State Association of Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention What’s New in Law...and So What?
• Facilitator: Jim Cooper, WA Association for Substance Abuse & Violence Prevention
  • Jim Cooper has worked in the prevention field for the several years and is currently the Director of Community Mobilization at TOGETHER! in Olympia and a board member of the Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention. His passions in life are people and the environment and he has always worked hard to make sure both are healthy and safe in whatever community he is living in. Jim enjoys the outdoors and loves to go hiking with his wife Thomasina and their two Black Labs.
• Panelists:
  New Rules that Regulate Alcohol Advertising in WA State
  Rick Garza, Deputy Administrative Director, WA State Liquor Control Board
  • Rick Garza, Deputy Director of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, leads the agency’s Director’s Office responsible for policy, legislation and media relations. A member of the agency’s staff for more than ten years, Rick also serves as the agency’s legislative and tribal liaison. Prior to joining the Liquor Control Board, Rick served 13 years as a staff member for the Washington State Legislature, including five years with the Washington State Senate and eight years with the state House. His legislative assignments included Policy Analyst in the state Senate, House of Representatives Staff Director, and adviser to House leadership.

• Significant Changes in Tobacco Policy
  Paul Davis, Policy Specialist, WA State Department of Health

  • Paul Davis has been with the Washington State Tobacco Program since January 2004 and currently serves as the specialist for secondhand smoke, youth tobacco access, and other policy issues. Prior to working for the Department of Health, Paul worked as a community based mental health and substance abuse treatment clinician and as a school based substance abuse prevention/intervention specialist. He started his work with tobacco issues by teaching nicotine education classes in a drug treatment facility in the mid 1980’s. Paul received his Masters of Science in Counseling from Oregon State University.

• The Latest in Gambling Laws and Fines
  Rhonda Stone, Community Education Coordinator, Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling

  • Rhonda Stone is currently the Community Education Coordinator for the Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling, formerly the Washington State Council on Problem Gambling, a private, not-for-profit organization devoted to awareness, training, and treatment for problem gamblers, family members, and others affected by problem gambling. Rhonda is a 30-year veteran of journalism, public information, and community education who began working with and for Ph.D.s in 1999 to articulate two complex issues related to learning and brain development. The work resulted in two trade publications published by St. Martin’s Press and McGraw Hill as sole author and a co-author. Her present challenge is to take a little understood issue—gambling “addiction”—and advance understanding and awareness for children, teens, young adults, and adults throughout Washington State. Rhonda became involved in problem gambling awareness after a family member died at age 49 from a stress-induced stroke, later linked to compulsive gambling. Rhonda worked for weekly and daily newspapers from 1977 through 1984; served as public information officer for the Yakima School District in the mid-1980s through early 1990s; developed, authored, and edited public information for parents in the Yakima Valley in the mid- to late-1990s; served as grants coordinator working with regional child development and cancer centers for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital from 1998 through 2002; conducted independent parent advocacy work including local, regional, and national presentations from 1999 through 2007; worked as a research and literary assistant to a business owner and Ph.D. in education from 2002 to 2007; and joined ECPG in 2008. She served on the National Council on Problem Gambling’s National Problem Gambling Awareness Week Planning Committee last year and has been invited to serve again in 2010.
• Critical Prevention Issues for the 2010 Legislative Session
• Liz Wilhelm, President, WA Association for Substance Abuse & Violence Prevention
• Liz Wilhelm has been an advocate for prevention in Washington State for 14 years, having worked in the substance abuse and violence prevention field for over 18 years in Washington and Illinois. Currently, Liz provides community organizing and prevention consultation as the Project Coordinator for Kitsap Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition – KTASC, a countywide Drug Free Communities coalition. Additionally, Liz is proud to serve as the President of the one advocacy organization for substance abuse and violence prevention, WASAVP, and as the co-chair for King County Community Organizing Program.

 

Sarah Mart, Marin Institute How to Stop Big Alcohol from Making Its Mark on Our CommunitiesPresenter Information: Sarah Mart is a public health researcher and advocate whose recent research projects include exposing alcohol promotion on Facebook, monitoring state alcohol-related legislation, and exposing the wine industry’s influence. Sarah joined Marin Institute in January 2009 after more than ten years directing health promotion and prevention departments at Syracuse University, the University of San Francisco, and The University of Montana-Missoula. Her research interests include public policy, effective prevention strategies, strategic planning, and social justice.