The Coalition for the Promotion of Behavioral Health is an interdisciplinary group of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working to advance the 7 Action Steps of Unleashing the Power of Prevention. Steering Committee members are:
Valerie Shapiro, PhD
Chair
university of california, berkeley
Valerie Shapiro, PhD, is an associate professor and the Co-Director of the Center for Prevention Research in Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. She also serves as an analyst for the Social Development Research Group as well as the Devereux Center for Resilient Children. Dr. Shapiro’s research is in the prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral problems in children and youth through the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of effective prevention practices.
Will Aldridge
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Will Aldridge is Director of The Impact Center at FPG & Advanced Implementation Specialist at FPG Child Development Institute, UNC-Chapel Hill. His work includes active implementation support and evaluation research on the implementation and scale-up of evidence-based prevention/wellbeing strategies in communities and state, regional, and national service systems. He is currently Principal Investigator on the Implementation Capacity for Triple P projects. Dr. Aldridge is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health; Board member of the National Prevention Science Coalition; and Affiliate Faculty & Implementation Science Strategist at Penn State's Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center.
Kimberly A. Bender, PhD
university of denver
Kimberly Bender is Professor and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education in the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver. Her recent research includes a study of gender-specific pathways from childhood maltreatment to juvenile delinquency among youth in the child welfare system. Bender's research aims to improve services and develop empirically based interventions for adolescents at risk of problem behavior. She recently contributed to an intervention research project on methods for engaging runaway youth in substance-use treatment funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
brian k. bumbarger, phd
colorado state university
Brian Bumbarger is Adjunct Research Associate at the Prevention Research Centers at Colorado State University and Penn State University and Founding Director of the Evidence-based Prevention and Intervention Support Center (EPISCenter). He is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Criminology Institute at Griffith University, Australia. He works at the intersection of research, public policy, and practice to promote community and public systems capacity-building to support evidence-based practice at scale.
Kevin Haggerty, phd
university of washington
Kevin Haggerty is the Director of the Social Development Research Group and Endowed Professor of Prevention at the University of Washington School of Social Work. He is Principal Investigator of the Utah Communities That Care Training program, Staying Connected with Your Teen, Families Facing the Future (formerly Focus on Families) and of a study testing the adaptation of an evidence-based family intervention for foster caregivers and their teens called Connecting. For more than 30 years, Dr. Haggerty has focused on developing innovative ways to organize the scientific knowledge base for prevention so that parents, communities, and schools can better identify, assess, and prioritize customized approaches that meet their needs.
Melissa Lippold, PHD
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Melissa A. Lippold is an Associate Professor and Prudence F. and Peter J. Meehan Early Career Scholar in the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on parent-youth relationships and the role they play in preventing adolescent risky behavior and substance use. She also studies stress in families, including the impact of family stress on parent and child health and the transmission of stress between parents and their children. Dr. Lippold’s work aims to identify salient intervention targets to improve family relationships and promote healthy outcomes for adolescents and their parents. Her research has been funded by numerous sources including the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development.
Emeriti Steering Committee Members
Jeffrey M. Jenson, PhD
University of Denver
Jeff Jenson, Ph.D., is the Philip D. and Eleanor G. Winn Endowed Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver. His research focuses on the application of a public health approach to preventing child and adolescent health and behavior problems and on the evaluation of preventive interventions aimed at promoting healthy youth development. Dr. Jenson has published seven books and more than 100 articles and chapters on topics of child and adolescent development and prevention science.
Gilbert J. Botvin, PhD
Cornell University
Dr. Botvin is a professor emeritus of psychology in the department of healthcare policy and research. As a behavioral scientist, his interests have centered on the intersection of health behavior and disease prevention. His research at Weill Cornell has focused on the etiology and prevention of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse as well as delinquency and violence. His NIH-funded research has also focused on translational research concerning the dissemination, adoption, implementation, and sustained use of evidence-based prevention approaches in multiple settings and populations.
Richard F. Catalano, phd
university of washington
Richard Catalano Jr. is the Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the School of Social Work, University of Washington and the co-founder of the Social Development Research Group. He received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, and his masters and PhD in sociology from the University of Washington. He is past-president of the Society for Prevention Research, and a steering committee member of the Coalition for the Promotion of Behavioral Health.
J. David hawkins, phd
university of washington
Dr. J. David Hawkins is the Endowed Professor of Prevention Emeritus and Founding Director of the Social Development Research Group. He received his BA in 1967 from Stanford University and his PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University in 1975. His research focuses on understanding and preventing child and adolescent health and behavior problems.