Nancy J. Chase, MEd, Certified Prevention Specialist (CPS)
Subject Matter Expert in Substance Use Prevention, Vector Solutions
Thursday, June 26 at 2:00 PM (ET) | 11:00 AM (PT)
In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy identified a “crisis of connection” as a fundamental public health challenge. This crisis is characterized by increasing social isolation, declining sense of belonging, reduced community engagement, weakening social bonds, and growing feelings of loneliness.
College students may be particularly vulnerable to this crisis of connection due to the transition from home to college, pressure to form new social connections, academic and career stress, reliance on digital over face-to-face communication, and decreased family support systems.
These critical issues play a significant role in substance use and abuse among college students. As emerging adults, college students often lack healthy coping skills, and emotional distress can drive students toward substance use as a coping mechanism. Therefore, addressing the crisis of connection can be a valuable strategy for preventing substance abuse.
Can’t attend live? Register today, and we’ll send you the recording to watch at your convenience!
Learning Objectives
As a result of attending this webinar, attendees will be able to:
- Describe the “crisis of connection” among college students.
- Define restorative practice’s core principles and processes and how they support social connection.
- Evaluate how restorative practice can be a substance abuse prevention approach and create a culture of care.
- Identify three ways to apply restorative practices on your campus.
Presenters
Nancy Chase is retired from the University of Delaware where she served as Director of Student Wellness and Health Promotion for 26 years. Currently, she provides consultation and subject matter expertise in substance use prevention to Vector Solutions, Inc. and she is also a contracted consultant with the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) providing training to college campuses in Reimagining Campus Community and Facilitating Listening Circles.
At UD, Nancy positioned her institution to earn the designation of United States Health Promoting Campus, and to acquire the Campus Prevention Network’s Seal of Prevention. During her tenure her office received two prevention awards: the 2018 Prevention Excellence Award for Substance Use Prevention, and the 2019 Impact Award for excellence in sexual violence prevention.
Her professional experience includes system-based health promotion strategy; public health approaches; prevention science implementation; research and service grant facilitation; screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) administration and direct service; community organizing; student affairs practice; student advocacy; college counseling; health education; personal wellness skill development; volunteer/student organization coordination; first-year seminar curriculum design; and undergraduate as well as graduate course instruction. She is a Certified Prevention Specialist (CPS) in substance use prevention with the Delaware Certification Board (DCB), a certified instructor of Bringing in the Bystander, a certified instructor of Our Whole Lives sexuality education, and served 30+ years as a trained advocate with the gender-based violence, grassroots, prevention organization Sexual Offense Support (S.O.S.). Nancy is also a Founding Partner within The Collaborative Center for Restorative Practices in Higher Education.
Gina Baral Abrams, DrPH, EdM, LSW, MCHES
Director of Research and Program Evaluation and Associate Professor at the International Institute of Restorative Practices Graduate School
Gina Baral Abrams has been working to develop healthy campus communities as a public health practitioner and licensed social worker for over 25 years. Dr. Abrams is the Director of Research and Program Evaluation and Associate Professor at the International Institute of Restorative Practices Graduate School (the IIRP) and teaches at Boston University and Tulane Schools of Social Work. Dr. Abrams previously served as the Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for Student Affairs at Lehigh University and as the Director for Health Promotion and Wellness at Princeton University. Abrams has also worked in health promotion at MIT and Bentley College.
As a health promotion in higher education leader, Abrams has written many seminal documents in the field, including the Inter-association Well-Being Definition and the CAS Cross-Functional Framework for Advancing Health and Well-Being and its complementary Self-Assessment Guide. She co-edited the CAS Standards and Guidelines for Health Promotion Services, the ACHA Standards of Practice for Health Promotion in Higher Education, and the ACHA Hiring Guidelines for Health Promotion in Higher Education.
Dr. Abrams has presented extensively on standards-based practice and frequently consults for colleges and universities on transformative approaches to creating health-promoting environments. She is the principal investigator of the Restorative Practices in Higher Education Learning Collaborative and was the founding director of the IIRP Collaborative Center for Restorative Practices in Higher Education.
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