To assist in the management and direction of the PMO, the CEO has assembled a ten-member Leadership Team that consists of the organization’s directors and key contractors. The Leadership Team convenes every week via conference call and virtual meeting platform and meets at least quarterly in person. These meetings provide us with an opportunity to discuss high-level strategic opportunities, programmatic success and issues, operational challenges, and organizational opportunities as they arise and to develop real-time strategies and solutions with maximum input. Where necessary to a full consideration of pending issues, the Leadership Team invites input from PMO employees, contractors, partners, and other stakeholders. The PMO’s Leadership Team is made up of the following individuals:
Chief Executive Officer
Our CEO Keith Hotle brings to the PMO an extensive background in the field of public health prevention and public administration, with specific expertise in the area of alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and suicide (ATODS) prevention. Prior to coming to the PMO in August 2015, Mr. Hotle was employed by the Wyoming Department of Health from 2005-2015 in positions of increasing authority and responsibility. These positions included serving as the state’s first suicide prevention coordinator, the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG) project director, and ultimately as the unit manager responsible for oversight and direction of WDH’s chronic disease, substance abuse, and suicide prevention efforts. Mr. Hotle holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Wyoming and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law.
During his ten-year tenure with WDH, Mr. Hotle was the architect of innovative prevention initiatives that have significantly advanced prevention in the State of Wyoming, including some that are only now coming to fruition. These include the design of the single fiscal agent/prevention management model and its implementation by the PMO; the completion of the Cost of Illness Study and Catalogue of Environmental Strategies and their application to community-based ATODS prevention; the short-term impacts and collective impact improvements to the application of the SPF model; IC&RC prevention certification for professionals working in the field; and multiple programmatic advancements.
Mr. Hotle is the author of the seminal 2012 WDH technical report “Suicide in Wyoming,” which set the groundwork for many of the suicide prevention efforts implemented over the past five years. During his time with WDH, he successfully wrote for multiple federal grants, including two successive three-year youth suicide prevention grants, resulting in the influx of millions of dollars for prevention efforts in Wyoming. He established the Wyoming Suicide Prevention Advisory Council, which he chaired for many years, and created the state plan that guided suicide prevention activities for the better part of a decade. Mr. Hotle is a nationally recognized expert in prevention and has presented before the Institute of Medicine, CDC, SAMHSA, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), American Association of Suicidology, American Public Health Association, and the Brady Institute. In 2014, he was recognized for his contributions in the field of suicide prevention as the first-ever recipient of the State Allies in Action award presented by the AFSP.
As CEO, Mr. Hotle is heavily involved in setting the direction for all programmatic elements of the organization related to ATODS prevention. Ongoing projects in which Mr. Hotle is actively engaged include the PMO’s provision of technical assistance, training, and application of the SPF model in communities; utilization of the InsightVision system for strategy management and outcomes tracking; coalition development through the systematic implementation of coalition-building plans in all 23 counties; and capacity enhancement by adapting collective impact principles to community-based prevention.
Suicide Prevention Director
Dr. Terresa Humphries-Wadsworth serves in a senior position within the PMO as our Suicide Prevention Director (SPD). She is a native Wyomingite, and one of the Rocky Mountain region’s foremost Suicidologists – a licensed psychologist who specializes in suicide prevention. She has more than 25 years of clinical and suicide prevention experience, including serving as the PMO’s SPD since the organization’s inception, where she has provided leadership in coordinating suicide prevention activities statewide and in Wyoming communities. She has worked to ensure a well-trained community prevention workforce, which in turn furthers local knowledge, abilities, and outcomes in suicide prevention. Her efforts have resulted in unprecedented statewide capacity for suicide prevention and utilizing science-based prevention strategies in Wyoming (e.g., Zero Suicide, behavioral health clinician training, psychological autopsies) with a particular focus on building capacity and ensuring sustainability of these efforts. As a local suicide prevention program manager prior to the PMO, Dr. Humphries-Wadsworth created the Family Centered Brief Intensive Treatment (FC-BIT) program, which provides a community-based, family-centric alternative to institutionalization. At a time when Title 25 placements are placing untenable demands on the state budget, FC-BIT provides a viable means to reduce those soaring costs.
Dr. Humphries-Wadsworth co-authored the first statewide needs assessment (NA) workbook for community suicide prevention and an assessment tool for community readiness for suicide prevention (CRSP). These tools were developed to help communities assess their unique strengths, challenges, and readiness for suicide prevention strategies at the community level. Dr. Humphries-Wadsworth was directly involved in developing the 2014-2016 Wyoming state suicide prevention plan, and the initial drafts of the 2017-2021 Wyoming state suicide prevention plan. Guided by the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, the plans were strongly influenced by Dr. Humphries-Wadsworth’s knowledge of (1) the national agenda; (2) the state’s culture, needs, and challenges; and (3) and how to practically translate statewide goals to community action plans.
Additionally, Dr. Humphries-Wadsworth has guided key areas of suicide prevention such as influencing public opinion on mental health issues (stigma) and improving behavioral health competencies in assessing and treating individuals with suicide ideation. She co-authored an innovative best practices reference guide for suicide prevention and initiated the Wyoming Suicide Epidemiology Research project; for which she mentors researchers across Wyoming in conducting psychological autopsy research. She helped develop and provides oversight of a first-ever collective impact research project in Campbell County that gained overwhelming community support and is making policy level changes related to suicide prevention and education.
Community Systems Director
Felicia Turner serves as the PMO’s Community Systems Director, in which capacity she oversees and manages multiple independent contractors to support the range of technical assistance services we provide to CPSs, CPDs, and the communities Ms. Turner oversees and manages multiple independent contractors to support the range of TA services we provide to CPSs, CPDs, and the communities). Ms. Turner originally was hired by the PMO to serve as the Director of Statewide Prevention and Wellness position at the PMO in 2013, where she was responsible for the oversight of ATOD TA to communities. She supervised four technical assistance providers and worked with them to ensure communities received timely TA and support to effectively employ the SPF model and deliver evidence-based services to the community.
Prior to joining the PMO, Ms. Turner served as the Substance Abuse Prevention Block Grant Coordinator within the Ph.D.’s substance abuse and suicide prevention program where she provided direction and support to community-based block grant-funded programs across the state. She will provide leadership and management with respect to the development use and evaluation of those systems, policies, and practices needed to support state and community alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) prevention efforts. Functional duties of her role include developing and evaluating systems for demonstrating ATOD prevention outcomes; systematically enhancing community engagement activities and support across the state; and standardizing the processes and tools for implementing the SPF model with fidelity.
Ms. Turner has worked closely with the tobacco prevention program at the state level. She has acted as a content expert, providing guidance and support to the state program’s marketing contractor as they developed recent tobacco media campaigns. She also led internal efforts, in collaboration with PHD and WYSAC, to develop and administer the Tobacco Free Schools Survey in all counties. She subsequently co-authored the Model 100% Tobacco-Free School Policy for use in communities. Ms. Turner has been working in the field of substance abuse prevention since 2008, with a key focus on alcohol prevention. She has utilized her knowledge in this field to support communities with current, new, or emerging science, research, and policy that can guide their local environmental prevention efforts.
Community Training and Education Director
Rob Johnston serves in a part-time capacity as the organization’s Community Training and Education Director (CTED). In this role, he works to ensure our staff have the skills and competencies necessary to achieve successful prevention outcomes in their communities. Key training events include the PMO’s Summer Institute, the Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST) week-long workshop for new community prevention specialists and the PMO’s participation in the International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC) prevention specialist certification. Mr. Johnston also works with the Suicide Prevention Director and other staff to provide support for the range of suicide prevention trainings we provide, such as Crisis Intervention Team, Mental Health First Aid, Question/Persuade/Refer (QPR), and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). In addition to his CTED role, Mr. Johnston serves as the senior community prevention specialist at the PMO’s Natrona County Office.
Mr. Johnston is an active member of the Natrona County Prevention Coalition and the Natrona County Suicide Prevention Task Force, and is a certified QPR trainer. Prior to joining the PMO three years ago, he was the Program Director for Project ReGain (a life skills program for people in recovery) and the HIV Prevention Program Manager for the Wyoming Department of Health. Mr. Johnston currently serves as the Chairperson of the Governor’s Behavioral Health Advisory Council for Wyoming and is a board member of Wyoming Health Council and the Wyoming Citizen Review Panel. Rob completed his undergraduate and graduate education at Pennsylvania State University.
Community Prevention Directors
The PMO currently employs four individuals as Community Prevention Directors (CPDs) who are responsible for directly supervising, mentoring, and coaching the Community Prevention Specialists (CPSs) that work in all Wyoming counties.
Charlotte Carlton brings 21 years of direct prevention experience a to her CPD role. Prior to joining the PMO in 2014, she served as Senior Program Director at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), where she directed SAMHSA’s Southeast CAPT, a large and multifaceted substance abuse prevention project. As part of the CAPT leadership, she helped develop many of the ATOD prevention tools in use today, including SPF Model, the NREPP, and the SAPST Curriculum. She co-authored the primary study on program sustainability used as the foundation for both the SPF Model and SAPST Curriculum. In 2001, she was elected by her peers to serve as Chair of the National CAPT Steering Committee and received the Award of Excellence for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Prevention presented by the National Prevention Network. The following year she received the 2002 Science to Practice Award presented by the Society for Prevention Research. Ms. Carlton has lectured widely throughout the United States and before the World Health Organization on the topics of strategic planning, systems change, and program sustainability and is co-author of two peer reviewed publications directly relevant to the role she currently serves at the PMO. See Johnson, K., Hays, C., Center, H. & Daley (nee Carlton), C. “Building Capacity and Sustainable Prevention Innovations: Conditions for Success” 27 (2004) Evaluation and Program Planning, 135-149 and Hogan, J., Baca, I., Daley (née Carlton), C., Garcia, T., Jaker, G., & Lowther, M. “Disseminating Science-Based Prevention: Lessons Learned from CSAP’s CAPTs” (2002) The Journal of Drug Education, 33:3. Ms. Carlton resides in Cody and supervises eight CPS in Big Horn, Hot Springs, Park, Sweetwater, Teton and Washakie counties.
Carol Hall has worked for the PMO since our inception. Beginning in July 2012 as a CPS in Natrona County, Ms. Hall was part of the local team who completed the community’s comprehensive ATODS prevention needs assessment and strategic plan, which resulted in the implementation of multiple strategies, including an Alcohol Dement Point System, a Texting-Tip Line, and Responsible Beverage Server Trainings. In May 2014 Ms. Hall was promoted to CPD. Prior to working for the PMO, Ms. Hall spent more than eleven years working in non-profit prevention settings, serving as Director of Outreach Services at Youth Shelters & Family Services of Santa Fe and Director of Prevention Programming at Catholic Charities of New Mexico. She is experienced in guiding community groups through strategic planning and helping them develop a working roadmap for successful prevention efforts. In addition to her employment experience, Ms. Hall has specific academic credentials focusing on Substance Abuse and the Family, Substance Abuse Assessment and Evaluation, and Addictive Behaviors. Ms. Hall resides in Casper and supervises eight CPSs in Campbell, Crook, Johnson, Natrona and Sheridan counties.
Mark Hicks has worked at the PMO since it began operations in July 2012. He began his work in the ATODS prevention field in 2003, where he was the campaign manager for the Smoke-free Laramie coalition instrumental in implementing the first comprehensive smoke-free ordinance in Wyoming. Mr. Hicks subsequently served as the community program manager for Albany County Tobacco Prevention and the Wyoming Through with Chew Program, doing community-based and statewide tobacco policy work. During that time, he worked with coalitions, community members, and stakeholders to help successfully implement numerous tobacco-free policies, including those for businesses, schools, hospitals, and higher education institutions. Mr. Hicks has presented at national conferences such as the National Conference on Tobacco or Health, and the National Summit on Smokeless and Spit Tobacco, and at multiple statewide conferences. Most recently, he presented at the Wyoming Public Health Association Conference on the PMO’s workplace wellness toolkit, which he co-authored. Mr. Hicks resides in Laramie and supervises ten CPSs in Albany, Carbon, Converse, Goshen, Laramie, Niobrara and Platte counties.
Kelly Rees brings eleven years of focused substance abuse and suicide prevention work to the PMO team, where she has served as both Fremont County CPS and more recently as CPD. Her work in Fremont County, with both the Fremont County Prevention Coalition and the Fremont County Suicide Prevention Task Force, has been a consistent and critical factor in the community’s transition from operating under Block Grant funding to SPF/SIG funding to CORE funding and now with the integrated PMO structure. Ms. Rees is a known quantity, a trusted member of the community, and a respected resource for the multiple prevention coalitions in Fremont County and on the Wind River Indian Reservation. With her assistance, Fremont County has developed customized strategic plans for reducing substance abuse and suicide. Ms. Rees helped foster implementation of a Texting Tipline, placement of prescription lockboxes, a strengthened minor in possession of tobacco ordinance in Riverton, smoke-free sports fields in Riverton, and major media campaigns in collaboration with County 10/Pitchengine. Ms. Rees resides in Riverton and supervises six CPSs in Fremont, Lincoln, Sublette, Uinta and Weston counties.
Human Resources and Operations Director
As the Human Resources and Operations Director (HROD), Haley Drake is responsible for the development and operationalization of systems to support strategic workforce planning, recruitment, hiring, on-boarding and off-boarding, and performance evaluation. This includes implementing the PMO’s Human Resource Information System and maintaining and ensuring compliance with policies set forth in the PMO’s Employee Handbook. Ms. Drake is further responsible for administration of employee benefits, conducting required employee training, and organizational compliance with federal and state employment-related statutes and regulations. In addition to her HR duties, Ms. Drake oversees the PMO’s operational and administrative functions, including its information technology (IT) systems and website.
Ms. Drake’s diverse professional background allows her to apply a wide variety of skills to her position as HROD. In addition to holding a Master’s degree in Human Resource Leadership, an advanced, accredited Professional in Human Resource credential, and having completed graduate-level coursework through Harvard University’s Non-Profit Management Extension Program, Ms. Drake also brings 30 years’ experience in non-profit and for-profit administration, human resources, education, and community mental health. Ms. Drake’s experience in the community mental health setting led her to become involved in prevention work, desiring to be part of the proactive work to reduce the negative impact of substance abuse and suicide on Wyoming communities. Ms. Drake works from the PMO’s administrative office in Buffalo and supervises two fiscal and administrative staff.
Financial Management Independent Consultant
Antoinette “Toni” Cervenka serves as an independent financial management consultant to the PMO. In that capacity, Ms. Cervenka helps ensure the PMO’s financial resources are allocated, managed, and tracked in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), requirements of grantors, and the needs of the organization. She handles a number of day-to-day functions of the PMO related to contract management and oversight, grant and federal regulatory compliance, and nonprofit management. The FMIC is the primary liaison with WDH staff on routine financial matters and she works closely with the CEO in supporting the Board of Directors in its oversight of the PMO.
Ms. Cervenka started her career in the field of substance abuse prevention more than thirty years ago, working in tobacco cessation with the American Lung Association of Colorado. Ms. Cervenka later moved to Wyoming, where she was employed as a licensed mental health worker working with seriously emotionally disturbed teens and in the field of underage drinking prevention. In 2001, Ms. Cervenka took a position as the executive director position of a fledging nonprofit, the Community Resource Center of Johnson County (CRC), dedicated to the prevention of substance abuse. From 2001 until 2012, the CRC grew from a staff of three to a staff of eleven. The CRC was awarded the State Incentive Grants, with which Ms. Cervenka started the Boys & Girls Club of the Big Horns, and grew the organization to a viable, robust entity. Under Ms. Cervenka’s leadership, the CRC assumed responsibility for managing the original Wyoming Prevention Technical Assistance Consortium, which catapulted the relatively young nonprofit into the state-wide arena of prevention.
In 2012, Ms. Cervenka on behalf of the CRC submitted and was awarded the grant that established the nonprofit as the organization responsible for delivering community-based substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health promotion services for all areas within the State of Wyoming. For the next three years. Ms. Cervenka served as the chief executive officer of the PMO, at which time she voluntarily stepped down to her present role. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wyoming and a Master of Nonprofit Management from Regis University in Denver.
Capacity Building and Strategic Media Consultant
Rich Lindsey works directly with Wyoming communities in stakeholder development and partnership-building activities, as well as providing technical assistance in the strategic use of media to support prevention outcomes at a local level. Mr. Lindsey is further responsible for the PMO’s state-level partnership development plan, which is designed to leverage resources and build sustainable collaborations to complement local ATODS prevention efforts. Mr. Lindsey has decades of experience in the political change process and in forming and maintaining coalitions that achieve policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change, including the strategic use of media to support the achievement of goals.
Mr. Lindsey was a co-founder and principal in the previous incarnation of the Wyoming Prevention Technical Assistance Consortium (WyPTAC) that existed prior to the PMO, and he is an expert in the use of media and social marketing to achieve substance abuse prevention outcomes. He has more than ten years of directly relevant experience in the development, implementation, and evaluation of research-based social marketing campaigns. Mr. Lindsey’s expertise spans all topic areas addressed by community prevention programs (alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and suicide). His services support communities in conducting focus groups and developing strategic messaging to be used in traditional media campaigns and social media efforts using such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. His longstanding relationships with the PMO’s community prevention staff and local coalitions, coupled with his proven history in the provision of community-based technical assistance, are strong assets to our prevention efforts.
Mr. Lindsey was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Wyoming’s first smokefree ordinance in Laramie, which provided the blue print for the second smokefree ordinance passed in Cheyenne. Since that time, he has been directly involved with providing TA in every community in Wyoming that has passed a smokefree ordinance. Mr. Lindsey has extensive expertise and skill in developing alcohol prevention media campaigns. He was one of the primary contributors to the development of the First Lady’s Talk Early & Often underage drinking campaign implemented across Wyoming. Mr. Lindsey has worked for many years to help local coalitions develop alcohol prevention media campaigns and has supported their community engagement efforts when it comes to advancing alcohol prevention policy and systems change. Examples of strategies he has helped communities achieve include, but are not limited to mandatory responsible beverage service training (RBST) ordinances, demerit point system ordinances, ordinances closing drive-up liquor windows, increasing use of community event best practices (including permitting policy changes), community ordinances addressing social hosting, and several media campaigns.
As a PMO team member, Mr. Lindsey has worked extensively with the Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving, Wyoming Seatbelt Coalition, Wyoming Department of Transportation, and Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police to develop marketing campaigns that address driving under the influence (DUI). His expertise includes conducting focus groups to shape messaging, technical assistance on substantive content, and the development of outcomes measures to ensure social marketing efforts have changed perceptions and/or behaviors of the intended audience.