IMPACT Lab

IMPACT Undergraduate Research Assistant (RA), Melanie Simpson, graduated summa cum laude from Washington State University with her bachelors degree in May 2021. During her time with the lab, Melanie has assisted faculty and graduate students with a plethora of tasks for the EBP Registry Project. Melanie has been a critical part of a team conducting a literature review to summarize existing research on the effectiveness of substance use prevention environmental strategies. We appreciate your hard work and are proud of you! Congratulations, Melanie!

IMPACT's Elizabeth Purser presented her work exploring the relationship between flourishing and young adult alcohol use at the WSU Showcase. Showcase is a weeklong celebration and recognition of WSU Faculty, Staff, and Students for the scholarly work that they have been completing. Click here to see her poster. Elizabeth, Erica, and Dr. Weybright found that flourishing is associated with greater annual alcohol use in young adults. Elizabeth was awarded third place for her presentation by the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) Research Exposition!

IMPACT's Erica Doering presented her work on College Student's Conceptualization of Boredom at the annual WSU Showcase. Showcase is a weeklong celebration and recognition of WSU Faculty, Staff, and Students for the scholarly work that they have been completing. The group found seven themes for Boredom Conceptualization. Click here to see her poster. Erica also received a scholarship award for her presentation and work! We are proud of you, Erica!

The Prevention Research Subcommittee (PRSC) met virtually for the March quarterly meeting! The PRSC is comprised of individuals representing the Washington Health Care Authority Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR), Washington State University, the University of Washington, the Washington State Department of Health, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and leadership/staff from other Washington State agencies or research organizations. Led by co-chairs Dr. Brittany Cooper (WSU) and Dr. Kevin Haggerty (UW), the group meets quarterly to provide a forum for prevention researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to identify and address emerging and evolving substance misuse prevention and mental health promotion service and research needs in Washington State. The theme for March's meeting was COVID-19.

IMPACT's Dr. Elizabeth Weybright presented to the Washington State Legislature House Commerce and Gaming Committee in March. She was joined by colleagues from the Washington Health Care Authority Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery as well as colleagues from the University of Washington. All presentations were given to help examine the effectiveness of programs to prevent youth access to and use of alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, and vapor products. Elizabeth's presentation was titled, Effective Approaches for Youth Substance Use Prevention and starts around timepoint 1:35:40. Click here to watch the recording!

The WSU Insider recently highlighted work by the Transformational Change Initiative (TCI) project and IMPACT Lab's Laura Hill. TCI is a three pronged project consisting of a parent-student handbook through the First Years Away From Home (FYAH) project, the LAUNCH program for students and Learn, Inspire, Foster, Transform (LIFT) for faculty development focused on the student classroom experience. Click to read the WSU Insider article.

IMPACT Undergraduate Research Assistant (RA), Alexis B. Schmierer, graduated from Washington State University with her bachelors degree in December 2020. During her time with the lab, Alexis has assisted faculty and graduate students on a variety of projects and tasks including qualitative coding, focus group transcript cleaning, comparative analysis of current opioid related work in Washington State, and assisting with IRB completion and submission. We appreciate your hard work and are proud of you! Congratulations, Alexis!

IMPACT Lab undergraduate Research Assistant Alexis B. Schmierer was awarded the Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery Prevention Fellowship! Alexis has been working with the IMPACT lab since January 2020 while simultaneously finishing her bachelor's degree (major: Human Development) and two certifications (Early Childhood Education and Family Studies) at Washington State University. In January 2021, Alexis will begin phase 1 of her fellowship at the Washington State Health Care Authority. Due to the ongoing pandemic, Alexis will begin her fellowship remotely. We're excited for you, Alexis! Congratulations!

The WSU Insider recently highlighted the WSU Center for Rural Opioid Prevention, Treatment and Recovery (CROP+TR), a two year project co-led by IMPACT's Dr. Elizabeth Weybright and the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine's Dr. Michael McDonell. The two-year project has just completed year one and aims to help rural families and communities in Washington State address and prevent opioid addition through technical assistance, training, and education. Click here to read the WSU Insider article.

IMPACT's Elizabeth Weybright was named the Interim Director of the WSU Extension Youth and Families Unit in July of 2020. Congratulations Elizabeth! Click here to read more in the WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences Newsletter.

Gitanjanli was selected for the incoming cohort of Early Career Reviewers Program for Prevention Science! The program aims to mentor early career prevention scientists by fostering an appreciation for and understanding of the peer-review process in the field of prevention science. As a reviewer, Gitanjali will commit to completing four reviews a year for two years. Congratulations, Gitanjali! Click here to learn more about the Early Career Reviewer program.

IMPACT's Laura Hill is one of seven WSU faculty recently elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. Laura, along with the six WSU colleagues, is recognized for history of strong scientific and technical work, providing and highlighting the current best practices for the State of Washington. Specifically, Laura was recognized for her work in the field of prevention science, studying effective implementation, evaluation and scale up of prevention programs that reduce risky behaviors and enhance protective factors. Click here to read more in the WSU Insider piece.

The IMPACT Lab released an Anti-Racism Statement condemning the continued violence against and murder of Black Americans. Click here to read the IMPACT lab's Anti-Racism Statement.

IMPACT's Brittany Cooper was elected to the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) Board of Directors. Brittany will serve on the Board of Directors until June 4th, 2023. Congratulations Brittany!

In addition to her roles as an IMPACT Principle Investigator and Director of the Prevention Science Graduate Program, IMPACT's Dr. Brittany Cooper was recently elected to the WSU Faculty Senate. In this role, Brittany will collaborate with the rest of the Faculty Senate to provide recommendations to WSU leadership on all of WSU activities, including education, research and service. Recommendations will also pertain to the general welfare of WSU. Brittany will serve in this role from 2020 to 2023. Congratulations Brittany!

IMPACT's Dr. Brittany Cooper has been appointed to the editorial board of the Implementation Research and Practice, an international, peer-reviewed journal focused on advancing implementation science and practice across diverse contexts. Click here to visit the journal's website.

IMPACT Undergraduate Research Assistant (RA), Kayli Elwyn, graduated from Washington State University with her bachelors degree in May 2020. During her time with the lab, Kayli has assisted faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students on a variety of projects including the Evidence-based Program Directory and looking at recruitment and retention within the Strengthening Families Program (10-14) in Washington State. Kayli has been accepted into the Master of Social Work program at Eastern Washington University. We're proud of you, Kayli!

IMPACT undergraduate research assistant, Kayli, has spent her last semester at WSU exploring effective recruitment and retention strategies for the Strengthening Families Program (10-14). Kayli's research abstract and poster were accepted at Washington State University's 2020 Showcase for Research and Creative Activities (SURCA); however, SURCA was cancelled due to COVID-19. Kayli was able to present her work to the IMPACT lab via Zoom. Click here to see Kayli's poster.

The WSU Insider recently highlighted work by a team at WSU, including IMPACT's Louise Parker, that explored a family-centered, media literacy oriented intervention. The group explored how empowering caregivers and children to skillfully use media could enhance family nutritional knowledge, decisions and consumption while simultaneously reducing marketing influences. Click here to read the full story.

IMPACT's Dr. Brittany Cooper was featured in Penn State University's College of Health and Human Development Alumni Spotlight in March. Dr. Cooper graduated from Penn State University with both her Ph.D and M.S. in Human Development and Family Studies. Dr. Cooper also spent time as a pre-doctoral fellow and evaluation specialist at the Penn State Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center. Click here to read the original Alumni Spotlight piece.

Brittany was invited to speak at the Penn State PRC & MC Joint seminar in March. Her talk, titled Leveraging D&I Science to Advance Understanding of Evidence-based Prevention Program Scale-Up, presented results from three different studies to illustrate how dissemination and implementation approaches and frameworks could be used to further our understanding of evidence-based program scale-up. Scale-up is essential in order to help programs, policies, and practices, which have been shown to prevent the increasing prevalence of behavioral health and related problems, impact population health.

Under Washington's Stay Home, Stay Healthy emergency order, the IMPACT lab members, like many around the world, have gotten creative in order to continue collaborating and connecting remotely. We feel lucky to have the opportunity to continue our research and academic work remotely. We hope that you and your communities are healthy.

IMPACT lab's Elizabeth Weybright provides insight into boredom and leisure during COVID-19 with the WSU Insider. Weybright's work and interests have focused on adolescent development, leisure and free time use, positive youth development, substance use and prevention science. Click to read the WSU Insider's recent post on boredom and COVID-19.

IMPACT's Dr. Elizabeth Weybright is awarded the Early Career Excellence award for faculty and staff in the WSU College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS). This award is given to faculty who have outstanding contributions to research, teaching and WSU extension during the early phases of their academic career. Congratulations Elizabeth!

The WSU Transformational Change Initiative (TCI) LIFT program was featured in the WSU insider in January, showcasing it's resulting increase in student and faculty engagement. TCI aims to help WSU become a university were students are supported emotionally, socially and academically, promoting individual lifelong success among WSU graduates. LIFT is just one component of the larger TCI initiative. IMPACT Lab's Laura Hill is on a team of WSU faculty leading TCI. Click to read the WSU Insider's recent coverage of the LIFT program.

Laura Hill (WSU IMPACT Lab) and Rico Catalano (UW Social Development Research Group) have served as co-chairs of the Prevention Research Subcommittee for the last several years. They are now stepping down as co-chairs, as Brittany Cooper (WSU IMPACT Lab) and Kevin Haggerty (UW SDRG) step into the roles beginning in January 2020. Thank you for your co-leadership Laura!

IMPACT lab graduate student Gitanjali Shrestha successfully defended her dissertation at the end of November. Dr. Shrestha was hooded by Dr. Laura Hill, her mentor and dissertation chair, on Saturday 12/8/2019 at the Washington State University Commencement celebration. We are excited to have Gitanjali continue with the IMPACT lab as a postdoctoral research associate!

Brittany Cooper was selected as the best presentation at the Washington State Prevention Summit Providers Meeting. The Washington State Health Care Authority thanked Brittany for her thoughtful presentation and the feedback that it catalyzed. Pictured: Brittany Cooper (second from the right) with WSU Prevention Science Graduate Students, including IMPACT Lab's Kyle Murphy (far right) at another joint Prevention Summit Workshop.

IMPACT PI Elizabeth Weybright's work in her adolescent health promotion lab investigating boredom trends among adolescents was recently featured in the WSU Insider. After a decade of monitoring adolescent boredom, Weybright and her colleagues work has shown that boredom is on the rise for adolescents and is increasing at a more rapid pace for young women. Click to read a recent press release in the WSU insider.

IMPACT Lab undergraduate Research Assistant Sabrina DiGennaro was awarded the Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery Prevention Fellowship! Sabrina has been working with the IMPACT lab since April 2019 while simultaneously finishing her bachelor's degree (major: Human Development, minor: Psychology) at Washington State University. In January 2020, Sabrina will head to Olympia to begin phase 1 of her fellowship at the Washington State Health Care Authority. We're excited for you Sabrina! Congratulations!

The IMPACT lab's Dr. Brittany Cooper was awarded Outstanding Oral Presentation for Bridging Science and Practice at the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) Conference in Seattle. Dr. Cooper's oral presentation was titled: Evidence-based Policymaking to Prevent Youth Substance Misuse: Where the Rubber Slams into the Evidence-Based Program Implementation Road. The presentation was representative of work that IMPACT Lab members, Drs. Cooper and Hill, had completed in collaboration with the University of Washington, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), and the Washington State Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR). The group has been exploring evidence-based policymaking and conducting cost-benefit analysis in relation to Washington State Initiative 502 and it's legislative mandate to fund state agencies for prevention and reduction of substance use. The presentation shared the group's collaborative approach they have used to address logistical barriers and provide recommendations for how other researchers, policymakers, and practitioners can use cost-benefit evaluation data to inform on-the-ground implementation decisions.

IMPACT's Elizabeth Weybright is co-leading a multidisciplinary team with Michael McDonell (Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine) working towards the Center for Rural Opioid Prevention, Treatment and Recovery. The project will leverage WSU’s Extension system to provide training to rural communities to help them prevent and treat opioid addiction in Washington State. Click to read a recent press release in the WSU insider.

The IMPACT Lab was awarded the 2019 Award of Excellence from the National Prevention Network for their work demonstrating effectiveness of community substance abuse prevention efforts in Washington State. Pictured here: IMPACT Lab Members (L to R: Gitanjali Shrestha, PhDc, Dr. Laura Hill and Dr. Brittany Rhoades Cooper on the far right) with collaborator Ms. Sarah Mariani from the Washington State Health Care Authority.