A quarter of a century ago, Mark T. Greenberg realized his dream of creating a research center dedicated to helping children and families thrive – with the philanthropic support of Penn State alumna Edna Bennett Pierce. On April 3 and 4, we brought together prevention leaders from across the country to the Hintz Family Alumni Center at Penn State to reflect on the past and plan for the future.

Live music, dinner, and conversations between old friends and new marked the kickoff of the anniversary celebration. We were also thrilled to present the inaugural Christine Ann Orrson Prevention Partnership Award to the Carbondale PROSPER team for more than two decades of dedication, resourcefulness, and tenacity in providing evidence-based programs to help youth and families prosper.

The morning of April 4, we convened a panel discussion led by Sarah Chilenski and Joche Gayles, with these panelists who are valued partners of the Prevention Research Center:

• Meghan Carter, Director, Organization Prevention Programs, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
• Karen Thomas, Field Coordinator, PROSPER
• Lee Winterhalter, Prevention Supervisor, Fayette County Drug & Alcohol Commission, Inc.
• Trina Johnson-Brady, Community Mobilizer, Wilson Area Communities that Care Coalition

See these valuable insights shared by the expert panelists.

Next, Meg Small led a workshop to raise awareness about how design methods are currently used in the PRC to advance prevention science research. Two case studies were shared by Jennifer Connell, Research Project Manager in Penn State’s Department of Psychology (for the NSF-funded Bear Buildz project) and Sarah Chilenski, PRC Associate Research Professor, and Jochebed Gayles, PRC Assistant Research Professor (for the NIDA-funded Coalition Checkup project). The second part of the session was designed to capture the collective and diverse wisdom in the room to generate ideas that move the field forward. ChatGPT was used to synthesize the information in real-time and facilitate a conversation.

Findings from the exercise included these recommendations for the Prevention Research Center:

• Enhance stakeholder engagement and collaboration
• Foster education and capacity building
• Promote innovation and adaptability in program development
• Strengthen evidence-based advocacy and policy influence

The exercise also revealed useful (and a few fanciful!) suggestions about how to:

• Increase the use of larger, more sustainable funding streams to support evidence-based interventions
• Support the creation and use of user-friendly data systems, that can be linked within and across systems, to monitor different types of evidence-based interventions, including their implementation and short- and long-term outcomes at county, state, and federal levels.
• Investigate the capacity of scaled-up, evidence-based interventions to reduce disparities in behavioral health outcomes for disadvantaged sub-populations.
• Promote active partnerships between scientists, policy makers, practitioners, and community members, within and across systems.
• Encourage policy makers, practitioners, and community members to identify the types of evidence-based interventions that need to be created and scaled up.
• Expand youth participatory research opportunities in social and emotional learning (SEL) program development and delivery.
• Increase school-based stakeholders’ awareness of and demand for programs and practices that include mindfulness, compassion, and relational components.
• Support the adults in systems that deliver social and emotional learning to students.

After lunch, we convened a panel discussion led by Prevention and Methodology Training Program Fellow Veronica Richards and PRC Director Max Crowley. These panelists discussed the future of prevention science:

• Brittany Rhoades Cooper, Associate Professor of Human Development, Washington State University
• Deb Temkin Cahill, Chief Research Officer, Child Trends
• Janean Dilworth-Bart, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Graduate Education & Professor of Human Development, University of Wisconsin
• Amir François, Senior Research Associate, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

See these valuable insights shared by the expert panelists.