At the 2025 Society for Prevention Research (SPR) meeting, Dr. Emily Tanner-Smith was recognized as an SPR Fellow. SPR Fellowships are conferred to a select group of researchers who have distinguished themselves through a substantial body of work that has made a significant impact on the field of prevention science. Friends and colleagues from the University of Oregon and other institutions attended the event to celebrate Emily’s achievement. More information on Emily’s award and outstanding scholarly contributions can be found via the College of Education newsletter. Congratulations to Emily!

Lauren Berny, Aden Bhagwat, and Andrew Prior gave poster presentations on their academic work at the 2025 SPR Meeting in Seattle, WA. Lauren presented on leveraging machine learning to predict drug use disorders in youth and inform preventive interventions. Aden presented on associations between adolescents’ physical/sexual abuse histories and substance use recovery outcomes. Andrew presented on anxiety as a potential predictor of adolescents’ cannabis use, and school climate as a potential moderator of this relationship. Lauren and Aden also participated in the SPR Cup, an annual competition that challenges teams of early career scientists to formulate a unique evidence-based research question and conduct analyses using the same dataset, and subsequently present their work to a panel of senior researchers and attending SPR members.

Frank Mojekwu, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, is completing his clinical internship at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Milwaukee, WI, after a successful defense of his dissertation, entitled “Conflicting attitudes: Could gun control policy ambivalence influence gun owners’ participation in gun violence prevention?” Frank’s dissertation committee members included Drs. Jessica Cronce, Clare Evans, Benedict McWhirter, Rhonda Nese, and Emily Tanner-Smith. Congratulations to Frank and well done by all!

Lindsey Nichols, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, is completing her clinical internship within the Child-Juvenile Justice training track at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Providence, RI. Lindsey begins her internship after a successful defense of her dissertation, entitled “Post-substance use treatment trajectories of adolescent substance use disorders: Examining the moderating roles of mental health and social support.” Lindsey’s dissertation committee members included Drs. Jessica Cronce, Wendy Hadley, Alayna Park, Maria Schweer-Collins and Emily Tanner-Smith. Congratulations to Lindsey and well done by all!

In June, Lauren Berny successfully defended her dissertation, entitled Recovery High Schools as Continuing Care: Long-Term Recovery Effects and Mechanisms of Change. Lauren’s dissertation committee comprised Dr. Emily Tanner-Smith (chair), Dr. Andrew Finch, Dr. Athika Kurana, Dr. Leslie Leve, and Dr. Nicholas Allen. After graduation, Lauren moved to Boston to begin a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She is contributing to ongoing projects at the National Center on Youth Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery under the mentorship of Dr. Emily Hennessy and Dr. John Kelly, while also developing and advancing her own line of substance use research. Congratulations to Lauren!

At the University of Oregon Graduate Research Forum in May, Aden Bhagwat was recognized for designing the Best Poster in the “Equity and Wellness” category. Aden’s work examined associations between adolescents’ histories of sexual and/or physical abuse and SUD recovery outcomes; he found that individuals’ alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis and alcohol use frequency were significantly linked to past sexual and physical abuse, respectively. Well done, Aden!