Join Dr. Allison Smith, Kristen Harper, Susie Mullens, and Sara Fudjack as they discuss different levels of Collegiate Recovery Advocacy work in honor of Collegiate Recovery Week 2022.
Panelists
Dr. Allison Smith (she/her): Allison is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Southern University in 2009, a Masters of Public Administration from Louisiana State University in May 2011 which was followed by a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership, Research and Counseling with a specialization in Higher Education Administration in 2016 also from Louisiana State University.
Allison has spent the last 10 years working in the field of substance mis/use prevention and recovery in higher education, with eight of those years being spent at Louisiana State University before an entity move to the Louisiana Board of Regents, where she currently works.
A consistent passion for Allison is addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and access in the world of prevention programming and recovery in higher education – on both the student and staff sides. In sharing her personal experiences, Allison is able to show audiences a different perspective they may not have previously considered in their good faith efforts to collectively problem-solve.
Through her love of conversation and collaboration, Allison enjoys connecting multiple parties to create innovative yet practical solutions and making “hard” or “difficult” conversations empathetic, informative and actionable to create a more just and equitable world.
Additionally, Allison enjoys encouraging others to fully be their authentic selves in every arena and to discover, develop and leverage their social capital.
Susie Mullens, Licensed Psychologist, LPC, AADC (she/her): Susie Mullens is a licensed psychologist, licensed professional counselor, certified advanced alcohol & drug counselor, & supervisor. She has been working in the mental health & substance use disorder field for over 30 years and has worked in all aspects of the continuum of care. She is currently the program coordinator for the WV Collegiate Recovery Network which is housed at Marshall University Research Corp. Alliance for the Economic Development of Southern WV, to help expand collegiate recovery efforts on 8 campuses in southern WV. She was formerly the Interim Director of the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP). While at ODCP she was responsible for securing the seed money (100K) for 5 collegiate recovery programs in WV.
Prior to ODCP she was the Director of Operations for the Association of Recovery in Higher Education, served as a Recovery Specialist helping establish the WVU Collegiate Recovery Program & Therapist at West Virginia University and was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Representative on the ARHE Board of Directors. Susie is currently a member of the ARHE Advisory Committee and is the recipient of the 2021 ARHE Advocate of the Year Award.
She is the WVAADC treasurer and also a past president of the association. She hosts a show on the WV Library Commission Network called Solutions, Service & Serenity which helps raise awareness about programs around West Virginia who are working across the continuum of care (prevention, early intervention, treatment & recovery).
Kristen Harper, M.Ed. (she/her): Kristen K. Harper, M.Ed., is the Director of Recovery Innovation at Faces & Voices of Recovery. Kristen began her career as the Founding Director for the Center for Addiction Recovery at Georgia Southern University’s JPH College of Public Health in 2008. While there, she connected deeply with her work, to build recovery support services for communities, especially for young people and families. In 2011, Kristen joined Texas Tech University’s Collegiate Recovery Community team as a Research Associate in the College of Human Sciences, where she focused most of her work on supporting the implementation of collegiate recovery communities across the country.
In 2013, Kristen joined the Association of Recovery Schools (ARS) as the Executive Director to help amplify the need for, creation of, and sustainability of recovery high schools in the U.S. and Canada. In 2016, Kristen contracted with Transforming Youth Recovery, a private foundation founded by a mother who lost her son to overdose, to oversee a technical assistance and grantee program for 120+ collegiate recovery efforts across the U.S. These institutions of higher education received micro grants of $10,000 each, to initiate collegiate recovery services on campus. By the time the grant program ended, over $1 million was distributed across the country and over 100 universities were impacted by the opportunity.
In 2017, Kristen joined C4 Innovations as a Recovery Specialist, where she had the opportunity to work on several teams, including, the Opioid Response Network, statewide collegiate recovery technical assistance programs and evaluations, and the helped to develop trainings around the intersectionality of race equity and recovery support.
Sara Fudjack (she/her): Sara Fudjack is a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years’ experience co-advocating alongside folx who navigate addiction, mental illness, and recovery. She is the founder and Program Director of Canada’s first Student Recovery Community at The University of British Columbia; a community where harm reduction and recovery coexist. Drawing from both her professional and living experience of addiction and recovery, Sara provides consultation and advocacy services to organizations interested in cultivating inclusive communities for people who experience(d) addiction. She approaches her work through a collaborative, socio-intersectional lens, which also guides her doctoral research investigating stigma within post-secondary settings and its impact on students, faculty, and staff navigating addiction and recovery.