• Conference Program
• Press Release

On April 21, 2006, SIRC hosted its 4th Annual Research Conference at the Tempe campus of Arizona State University. The conference presentations were led by a distinguished group of national and international scholars, graduate students, and community representatives. This year's attendance was the highest to date and the program was rich in content and varied in format.

The conference would not have been possible without the generous support of various community agencies and ASU departments. We would like to recognize the sponsorship of the College of Public Programs, School of Social Work, College of Nursing, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ASU Center for Latin American Studies, TERROS Behavioral Health Services, Chicanos Por La Causa, ValueOptions of Arizona and MedPro of Arizona. Conference supporters included the College of Education, ASU Intergroup Relations Center, Department of Sociology, ASU Division of Graduate Studies and Concilio Latino de Salud. Printing of conference materials was subsidized in part by Alphagraphics of Tempe.

The conference theme was "Transcending Boundaries in Drug Abuse Research: Cross-cultural Generalizability", which highlights the culturally-based prevention research emphasis of the center. Conference activities included a keynote and plenary session, six concurrent breakout sessions and our traditional graduate students' poster session covering a wide range of topics in Intervention Research and Methodology.

This year, SIRC presented two Leadership Awards. Elizabeth Ortiz de Valdez, MD., Executive Director, Concilio Latino de Salud was recognized for "Outstanding Leadership and Support of Evidence Based Research with Communities of the Southwest." Throughout her career, Dr. Valdez has devoted endless energy to studying and preventing HIV/AIDS in the local Latino community. Christina Wombacher, Director of Operations, ASU Women's Basketball was recognized for "Outstanding Leadership and Support of Prevention Research with ASU Community Partners." Ms. Wombacher and the ASU Women's basketball team graciously supported our drug resistance research with youth in Phoenix area schools.

Conference presentations:

Keynote Address: Lessons from Mexico: Epidemiological and Psychosocial Studies in Drug Abuse Prevention Research. Maria Elena Medina-Mora, PhD, Director of Social and Epidemiological Research, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria, Ministry of Health, Mexico City, Mexico

Adaptation Research with Mexican and Mexican American Communities  A Model of Program Adaptation: Theory and Applied Perspectives. Felipe Castro, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, ASU

Adaptation and Evaluation of Culturally Grounded Substance Abuse Prevention for Adolescents in Alternative Schools and Community Settings in Texas. Lori Holleran, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Texas, Austin; and Laura M. Hopson, PhD candidate, University of Texas, Austin

International Initiatives in Culturally Specific Prevention Research  Global AIDS Epidemics Among Women: Cultural, Gender, and Structural Factors. Nabila El-Bassel, PhD, Professor of Social Work and Director of the Center for Intervention and Prevention Research on HIV and Drug Abuse, School of Social Work, Columbia University

Reaching Out to Immigrant and Non-immigrant Youth in Spain: The Galicia Project. Stephen Kulis, PhD, Professor, Department of Sociology, SIRC Director of Methodology, ASU; and Tanya Nieri, SIRC Coordinator of Research, ASU

Childhood and Adult Abuse Histories and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Drug Abusing Women. Bonnie Carlson, PhD, Professor, School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, State University of New York

Plenary Session: Crossing Borders: Immigrants, Trauma and Substance Abuse. Lala Straussner, DSW, Professor and Director, Post-Master's Program in Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Abusing Clients, Ehrenkranz School of Social Work, New York University, Editor of the Journal of Social Work in the Addictions.

Integrating Neuroscience to Behavioral Research. Elwin Wu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Assistant Director of the CUSSW Social Intervention Group and the Co-Director of the Center for Intervention and Prevention Research on HIV and Drug Abuse, Columbia University

The Creation of Entre Dos Mundos/Between Two Worlds Prevention: How Community-based Research Guides Program Design. Martica Bacallao, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Paul Smokowski, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill