December Premier: How Park and Recreation Departments Can Work With Drug-Free Community Coalitions to Help Reduce Youth Substance Use in Their Communities

Chrissy Mayer serves as the Chief Community-Based Services Officer at DCCCA based in Lawrence, Kansas. She has been engaged in nonprofit work for nearly 25 years in a variety of roles. Chrissy has a special interest in coalition development, grant writing, leadership development, and change management in organizations. She also specializes in group engagement and facilitation.

Karen Voetsch is the Branch Chief for the Drug-Free Communities Program at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at CDC. She joined CDC as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2003, starting her career in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. In her 21 years at CDC, she has led a number of efforts in communication, strategic planning, budgeting, and partnership development for the Prevention Research Centers, the Alcohol Team, the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and the Healthy Schools Program. She has also helped to create new programmatic initiatives for several community-based programs, such as the Steps Program, Communities Putting Prevention to Work, and the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health program.  Karen also has an international health background having served in the Peace Corps in West Africa and as a CDC-assignee on non-communicable diseases and road safety issues in Botswana. She received her master's in public health in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. She lives in Decatur, GA with her husband and two children.

Matt McClure currently serves as the Director of the Baldwin City Recreation Commission, in Baldwin City, Kansas. Matt has served in the field of parks and recreation for the past 25 years in various capacities. He is a current Kansas Recreation and Park Association board member, serving as the East Region Representative. Matt is also a 1999 graduate of the Kansas State University, where he majored in Recreation and Park Administration. Matt and his wife, Nikki, have 3 children, Jake 20, Addison 17, and Emily 12. Their kids’ activities take up a lot of their free time, but when they have a chance, cheering for the Wildcats, Chiefs, and Royals rank high on the to do list!