Sponsored by MidSOUTH Center for Prevention and Training
September 22-25, 2025 Agenda
Monday September 22nd
9-12 Addressing Opioid Overdose: Understanding the Role in Prevention
1-4 Real-Time Resilience: Nervous System Based Training for Workforce Retention & Burnout Prevention
Tuesday September 23rd
9-12 Tactical Capacity: Doing More with Less Without Burning Out
1-4 Sustainability: Now for the Future & Capacity: Building Coalitions That Last
Wednesday September 24th
9-12 Pathways to Prevention: Building Your Skills, Strategy, and Success
1-4 The Engagement Blueprint: Building Stronger Coalitions
Thursday September 25th
9-12 Community Connections
1-4 Design with Purpose: Building Presentations That Stick
Register below and receive one Zoom link to attend any or all of these excellent trainings.
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Workshop Descriptions Monday 22nd
9-12 Addressing Opioid Overdose: Understanding the Role in Prevention- This workshop equips prevention specialists with the knowledge and tools needed to address the ongoing opioid crisis through a prevention-focused lens. Participants will explore the scope of opioid misuse and overdose, identify the populations most at risk, and examine the social, environmental, and individual factors that contribute to overdose risk. Presenter: Kendra Tapie M.Ed., ACPS 3 ATOD Specific Hours
1-4 Real-Time Resilience: Nervous System Based Training for Workforce Retention & Burnout Prevention- Real-Time Resilience is the ability to reset in the moment, recharge throughout the day and restore appropriately between tasks and clients to meet the demands of the day. This interactive session teaches practical nervous system resets and energetic boundary tools to reduce daily stress-load, clear client residue and restore whole self-presence using the ABCs of Presence to recharge between sessions and return home with more of you intact. Presenter: Jen Schneeman MBA, C-IAYT, CMHC, CDCA
Tuesday 23rd
9-12 Tactical Capacity: Doing More with Less Without Burning Out- In the prevention field, resources are often tight and demands are high. This session offers practical strategies to maximize your impact without sacrificing your well-being. You’ll learn how to leverage partnerships, streamline processes, and prioritize high-value activities so you can work smarter—not harder. Walk away with tools to sustain both your mission and yourself. Presenter: Dave Closson MS
1-4 Sustainability: Now for the Future & Capacity: Building Coalitions That Last- Sustainability sounds like a great idea in theory, but often coalitions and prevention specialists aren’t really sure how to ACTUALLY sustain prevention work, resources, and funding. This session will explain one of the core components of the Strategic Prevention Framework – Sustainability – and why we need to be thinking about sustaining our efforts even before we start implementing them. Participants will learn how to assess their sustainability needs, seek diversity in their funding sources, and will leave with a resource and sustainability planning tool.
Building Coalitions That Last highlights the importance of engaging diverse sectors—such as youth, parents, business, media, education, health care, law enforcement, and more—to bring multiple perspectives to prevention work. Participants will learn recruitment techniques, member retention strategies, and the value of aligning roles with skills to keep members engaged and active. The session also covers organizing coalition structures, cultivating leadership, fostering cultural competence, and ensuring relevance to community needs. Emphasizing the Strategic Prevention Framework, the presentation links capacity building directly to long-term sustainability and measurable community outcomes. Presenter: Rikki Barton MA, CPS
Wednesday 24th
9-12 Pathways to Prevention: Building Your Skills, Strategy, and Success- Step into the impactful world of substance misuse prevention with this interactive 3-hour virtual training designed for new and emerging prevention specialists. Participants will gain a clear understanding of the prevention specialist role, explore evidence-based theories and frameworks that guide effective practice, and create actionable short-, mid-, and long-term goals to advance their careers. Through engaging discussion, practical tools, and real-world examples, this session will empower you to strengthen your skills, deepen your impact, and chart a path for lasting change in your community. Presenter: Louise Montag BS, CPC
1-4 The Engagement Blueprint: Building Stronger Coalitions- Strong coalitions don’t happen by accident—they’re built through intentional strategies that spark connection, trust, and shared purpose. This session lays out a step-by-step blueprint for deepening engagement with partners and stakeholders. You’ll learn how to communicate your coalition’s “why,” foster mutual benefit, and create momentum that turns participation into lasting commitment. Presenter: Dave Closson MS
Thursday 25th
9-12 Community Connections- The saying “nothing about us without us” reigns true to not only those we serve, but also those we partner with. Community connections are the fabric that can make or break our prevention efforts so will spend time engaging one another in order be sure that our community connections “make” all of our programs successful.
In this workshop, we are going to discover the importance of connecting to the community and learn how to Create a “reach out” method to connect to those within the community, Practice good communication methods to keep strong connections, Create letters to ask for resources/incentives to other businesses and Develop a process of accountability to those new community connections Presenter: Trevon Norman ACPS/ICPS
1-4 Design with Purpose: Building Presentations That Stick- Prevention Specialists are called upon to disseminate information to schools, businesses and community groups. How do you create a presentation where participants leave with knowledge they can use or a new skill that they can immediately apply? Core topics we will cover- Beginning with the end in mind, understanding learning objectives, and answering who, what, when where, how and why. The goal of this training is to enhance the knowledge and skill set for participants who are designing a presentation or training. Participants will leave with a template that can be used for any presentation. Presenter: Mitchell Moore BAT, ACPS, LCDC
Speaker Bios
Kendra Tapie M.Ed., ACPS, is passionate about Prevention! Since 2007, she has worked at Serenity Foundation of Texas- Impact Youth Prevention Program and serves as the Region Director of Prevention, managing 3 prevention campuses in Abilene, Wichita Falls and Weatherford, Texas. She started as a prevention specialist while completing her masters in Counseling and Human Development and has implemented multiple curriculum, Too Good for Drugs, Positive Action, Life Skills, Project Success and Project Towards No Drugs.
During her time at Serenity, Kendra has been involved in coalition work and served as the chair of the Taylor Alliance for Prevention coalition for 5 years and helped form a Teen Recovery Group for students under the age of 18.
Kendra is a part of the Texas training cadre with the Human Health Service Commission and is certified to provide the following trainings: Prevention Ethics, Advanced Prevention Ethics, Addressing Opioid Overdose, Positive Action Curriculum, Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist Skills Training.
Kendra is the recipient of the 2023 Texas Prevention Specialist of the Year award.
Jen Schneeman MBA, C-IAYT, CMHC, CDCA is a soul-driven scientist and a co-founder of Real Human Performance. With 22 years in health and human performance, Jen thrives as a chronic fatigue and trauma-informed nervous system specialist facilitating stress management, energy optimization and posttraumatic growth.
First as a science + tech advisor with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Sciences Office and later as a Deputy at the Air Force Research Lab, Human Performance Wing, Jen managed a portfolio of collaborative programs to understand the unique impact of nutrition, disease, brain injury and stressors on humans and how that impacts susceptibility and resistance to other diseases.
She authored Self Care and Resilience™ (SCAR), a personalized nervous system-based burnout resilience program to reclaim energy and expand capacity. Jen guides real humans to live life fully without the stress of nonstop thoughts, intense emotional triggers and exhausting energy leaks.
Jen collaborates for care and brought mindful yoga therapy to three VA Medical Centers, PTSD and TBI residential programs, addiction treatment centers, treatment courts and support groups. Jen facilitates this mind body resilience programs for medical professionals, caregivers and survivors of sexual assault, addiction, PTSD and TBI.
She launched therapeutic mind body connection programs within two NFL teams, three military branches, dozens of organizations and hundreds of medical, mental health and caregiving professionals. After COVID, she expanded the program to real humans just like us.
Jen coaches Ohio Youth in Hey I’m Here Ohio, a diverse youth-led movement on a mission to grow resilience in Ohio’s young people.
Jen uses humor, lived experience and proven methods to deliver stress management, burnout resilience and post-traumatic growth solutions that enable people to live with more awareness, control, self-trust and peace. Jen guides people to understand their unique nervous system in order to boost distress tolerance, manage chronic pain and thrive amidst the inevitable daily stressors. Jen helps people remember their spirit, live a soul-driven life and burn bright after burnout.
Dave Closson MS, the owner of DJC Solutions, LLC, a consulting company dedicated to serving substance misuse prevention professionals, law enforcement officers, and military veterans across the United States.
With a focus on sustainable habits, aligned experiences, and next-level excellence, Dave helps others achieve their full potential.
As the author of “Motivational Interviewing for Campus Police” and one of the few Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) #StillServing Heroes nationwide, Dave is a nationally recognized expert in his field.
He was the very first Director of the Mid-America Prevention Technology Transfer Center, where he served as a prevention catalyst, empowering individuals and fostering partnerships to promote safe, healthy, and drug-free communities.
Dave’s unique experience in substance misuse prevention comes from serving as a university police officer at Eastern Illinois University and being deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his year in Iraq with his infantry battalion and recon team, Dave earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and was awarded two Army Commendation Medals (one for valor and one for meritorious service).
With a Master’s in Technology, Training and Development, and a Bachelor’s in Environmental Biology, Dave is a lifelong learner who is committed to pushing his own limits and helping others do the same. Through training, coaching, and consulting, Dave is making a difference in the lives of those he serves and helping them achieve lasting transformation.
Rikki Barton MA, CPS, has a passion for moving individuals and communities onward in their goals. She is the Founder /Lead Consultant of Onward Consulting and is a Certified Prevention Specialist. Rikki has over 16 years of prevention field experience and currently serves as a consultant to assist organizations, coalitions, and state/federal agencies in the areas of substance use prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health promotion. She has extensive experience working with community coalitions, providing training, grant writing, managing funding sources, and leading a team of preventionists. Rikki trains for CADCA in their youth and adult training programs, for the National Coalition Institute, as well as for National Council for Mental Wellbeing as an Adult, Youth, and Teen Mental Health First Aid Instructor. Rikki holds a Bachelors degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Masters degree from Liberty University. In her free time, Rikki loves exploring the outdoors on hikes with her rescue dog, Oreo.
Louise Montag BS, CPC, is a public health professional with a decade of experience, specializing in substance misuse prevention. As a Senior Consultant with Montag Forward Solutions LLC, she provides strategic guidance and training to prevention professionals nationwide. Formerly the Executive Director at Prevention Network, she has led community-based prevention initiatives and developed numerous resources for the field. Recognized with awards such as the Prevention Specialist of the Year Award and the Top 10 in 10 Years Award, Louise is committed to fostering effective leaders and sustainable organizations dedicated to social good. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her husband, staying active, and spending time with her two dogs.
Trevon Norman ACPS/ICPS, is an energized Advanced Certified Prevention Specialist who loves to share information. He has been in Prevention since 2016 and has gradually elevated through different training and workshops.
He began his prevention work with Serenity Foundation of Texas Impact Youth Prevention Program in the indicated population with the PTNP program. His skill in facilitation in the high school environment, helped produce positive outcomes with the students causing successful implementation of the program.
He currently works for Serenity Foundation of Texas as a Coalition Coordinator for the Prevention Alliance for Wichita, a community coalition partnership for region 2 of North Texas. His area of expertise is facilitation to youth and adults as well as community connections and building strong partnerships. Within the community he serves, Trevon is a Gold Coat Chamber of Commerce member and involved in many school and other non profit organization activities. He is also a certified SAPST trainer with C.A.R.E. Consulting and aspires to add more training expertise to his resume.
His motivation is God, family, and friends. He is happily married to his lovely wife who is a Rockstar and is the best part of him. Together they have two children. The eldest is a princess that is the kindest heart on earth and the youngest is a prince who is ready to take on the world. He loves spending time with them and is blessed to be able to serve as a Pastor of a great group of people within the county. God is good and so is life with Him!
Mitchell Moore BAT, ACPS, LCDC is a dynamic educator who has a passion for training people and serves those who serve by designing and delivering training and across America. He is an advanced certified prevention specialist and licensed chemical dependency counselor who has extensive experience working with youth and families in both prevention and recovery settings. He has served as a counselor, prevention specialist, a grant writer and executive director of a charitable organization. In 2019, he was awarded the Texas Prevention Specialist of the Year. He is currently an independent contractor, a beekeeper and volunteers his time for Prevention Training Services and the Texas Certification Board.
“Prevention is Better Together”