Teacher Prevention Resources for NIDA-funded Evaluation Study: Enhancing Implementation Fidelity in a Multi-Site Trial        | |||
Meet the Project Team
Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, Principal Investigator, is a Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, Chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, and Director of Cornell's Institute for Prevention Research. Dr. Botvin is an internationally known expert in the field of tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention. Dr. Botvin has been a principal investigator on 20 federally funded school-based prevention projects involving over 300 schools and 40,000 students. He is past-President of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) and the founding editor of Prevention Science, SPR's journal. Dr. Botvin holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1977) with training and experience in both developmental and clinical psychology. Dr. Botvin is the president of National Health Promotion Associates (NHPA), which provides teacher training and technical assistance for LST.
Dr. Maddy Mahadeo, Co-Investigator and Project Director, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Mahadeo has a B.Sc in Biology and an MPH. from the University of Miami. She received her doctorate in Sociomedical Sciences from the Columbia University School of Public Health. Dr. Mahadeo's primary research interests include drug abuse prevention and health promotion with adolescents and young adults. Her other research interests include women's health issues related to partner drug use, and the effects of culture on health behaviors.
Dr. Kenneth Griffin, Co-Investigator, is a Professor in the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College. His research focuses on the etiology and prevention of drug abuse and HIV risk behavior among adolescents and young adults, and his research has been supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse. Dr. Griffin earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, received his Ph.D. in psychology from SUNY Stony Brook, and an MPH in epidemiology from Columbia University. He received the Early Career Award for outstanding contributions to prevention science from the Society for Prevention Research in 2002. Dr. Griffin is a consultant to National Health Promotion Associates. |
Improving Prevention Quality & Effectiveness Over the past two decades, considerable progress has been made in developing more effective prevention programs. A growing number of studies published in well-respected scientific journals provides compelling evidence that school-based programs can prevent tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use. However, this research also shows that the effectiveness of these evidence-based programs can be compromised if they are not properly implemented. Researchers at Cornell's Weill Medical College are conducting a project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA-016106) that is intended to increase the effectiveness of school-based prevention programs by enhancing implementation fidelity. The goal of this research is to identify effective ways to enhance the implementation fidelity of evidence-based drug abuse prevention programs designed for middle schools and to determine the extent to which enhanced fidelity improves student drug-related outcomes. The prevention approach that is being used in this project is Life Skills Training (LST), a program that has been extensively tested and shown to be effective in prior research.
Enhancing Implementation Fidelity This web site contains a number of tools designed to enhance implementation fidelity. Although these tools are tailored for the prevention program being implemented in this project (LST), they are based on strategies for enhancing fidelity that can be applied to any prevention program. Included are tools for planning to implement a prevention program in a middle school (Planning Tools), fidelity guidelines in the form of Fidelity Checklists, assessments that teachers can use to determine the progress of their students (Classroom Assessments), Tips for Teachers intended to be read immediately prior to implementing each prevention session, a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs), information about obtaining Technical Assistance, as well as information about additional prevention resources.
Michelle Lewis, Financial Administrator & Esther Romero, Sr. Research Assistant
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