2021 NC Prevention Conference Speakers
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Plenary Speakers
• Day 1 Plenaries •
"Prevention Updates" with Jessica Dicken, MSW, Section Chief, Community Wellness, Prevention and Health Integration Team, DMH/DD/SAS

Jessica has twenty-two years of experience in substance misuse prevention, including thirteen years conducting training and technical assistance to prevention block grant providers, law enforcement, coalitions and collaboratives in Illinois and North Carolina. She’s passionate about encouraging community strategic planning for ATOD primary prevention initiatives and collaborating with statewide partners, most recently on the impact of Federal Tobacco 21 laws and navigating prevention efforts during and post COVID. She’s been with DMH since May 2018 serving as the Prevention Block Manager, Interim Section Chief and since July 2019 as Section Chief. Prior to 2018, she focused on training, TA and instructional design roles with the NC Training and TA Center. In her spare time, she is a proud mother and spouse, an avid sports fan, gardener, reader, animal lover and weekend explorer of North Carolina beaches/mountains and sites. Jessica received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"Alcohol Policy and the COVID-19 Pandemic" with David Jernigan, PhD

David Jernigan, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health, and senior policy advisor to CityHealth, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. He previously directed the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) and was an associate professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a member of the Cannabis Advertising and Social Media (CASM) research group, an advisor to the Maryland Collaborative to Reduce College Drinking and Related Problems, a member of the steering committee of the Global Information System on Alcohol and Health, and scientific chair of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance. He has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the World Bank, and has written more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed chapters to seven books on alcohol issues.
"Equity and Prevention" with Dr. Angela Maxwell

Angela Maxwell is the Prevention and Early Intervention Services Director for Alcohol and Drug Services. She oversees services in ten counties and has worked in substance use prevention for 25 years. Angela is also the co-founder of Aspire Training and Consulting Group, LLC. She has a B.A. Degree in English (UNC-Chapel Hill), M.S. Degree in Agency Counseling (NC A&T State University) and Ph.D. in Leadership Studies (NC A&T State University). After completing her MS, she worked with the local mental center serving youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. Angela is a Certified Prevention Specialist (CPS) and has served as an adjunct professor for Guilford Technical Community College. Angela serves on several boards across North Carolina to include: NC Substance Abuse Prevention Providers’ Association (Board Chair), NAADAC: National Addiction Professionals Association (President-Elect) and many others. She has facilitated numerous workshops on the local, state and national level in the areas of substance use prevention, addiction, workforce development, ethics, social justice, strategic planning, coalition development, and workplace wellness. She is sought after as an authority in the field of primary substance use prevention. Angela has received three statewide substance use professional of the year awards (2008, 2010, 2019).
• Day 2 Plenaries •
"CBD and Marijuana Law and Policy: An Objective Discussion" with Anna Godwin, MS, LCAS, CSAPC and Stacey Worthy, JD

Anna Godwin, MS, LCAS, CSAPC joined CINC (formerly Families in Action) in 2012 where she serves as the new Executive Director. In 2006, Anna received a Bachelor’s of Science in Recreational Therapy. She then went on to receive a Master’s of Science in Professional and Substance Abuse Counseling and a Master’s of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling and is a Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist (LCAS) in the state of North Carolina. Anna has experience working in both residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment and has also worked as an employee assistance consultant. Anna currently serves on the Addiction Professionals of North Carolina board as Vice President and serves on the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition board.

Stacey Worthy, J.D. serves as counsel for Aimed Alliance and is a principal attorney at Sequel Legal. Ms. Worthy provides counsel to nonprofit organizations; health care programs and providers specializing in pain and addiction medicine; clinical laboratories; and pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies in various aspects of their legal, regulatory, and business affairs. Ms. Worthy advises health care programs, providers, and laboratories on a wide range of federal and state health regulatory, fraud and abuse, and reimbursement matters, including anti-kickback, false claims, self-referral, fee-splitting, marketing, billing and coding, and licensure issues. She also counsels clients on the development, implementation, and evaluation of their compliance programs. She prepares practitioners for U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration inspections, responds to licensing board complaints, drafts policies for urine drug testing, and assists with third-party billing and collections. Ms. Worthy frequently authors scholarly articles for publication and presents at national conferences on topics concerning health care regulatory matters; best practices and the standard of care for prescribing controlled substances; fraud and abuse; and improving patient access to quality health care. Ms. Worthy is a graduate of George Mason School of Law, where she served as Articles Editor for the George Mason Law Review. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English and graduated magna cum laude from Boston’s Suffolk University in 2006.
"Working During COVID: Challenges and Opportunities?" with Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition, Orange Partnership for Alcohol & Drug Free Youth, and Alcohol & Drug Services.
"Attorney General's Report (TREC) recommendations" with Steve Mange, J.D. & Jasmine McGhee, J.D.

Josh Stein was sworn in for his first term as North Carolina’s 50th Attorney General in 2017 and his second term in 2021. As Attorney General, he is focused on protecting North Carolina families from crime and consumer fraud. Stein has made combatting the opioid epidemic a top priority. His office drafted the STOP Act to reduce the number of people who become addicted to opioids through smarter prescribing practices, the HOPE Act, which gives law enforcement additional tools to stop the flow of prescription pain pills into the drug trade, and the Synthetic Opioid Control Act to crack down on the trafficking of illicit fentanyl. All three laws were passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper. Stein is leading the effort to identify, track, and test untested sexual assault kits. Testing these kits will help law enforcement identify and prosecute criminals, prevent future crimes, and bring closure to victims.
As Attorney General, Stein has also worked to protect taxpayers, seniors, students, and military families from fraud. His Department of Justice won awards or settlements of more than $80 million from scam artists. He is working to improve data security and is leading a national effort combat robocalls. Additionally, his office has recovered nearly $50 million from tax cheats and health care providers defrauding Medicaid over the past two years. Stein is also focused on protecting our state’s natural resources. He opposes offshore oil drilling along North Carolina’s coast and fights to ensure that polluters are held accountable to clean up the messes they create. Stein previously served as a state Senator and as Senior Deputy Attorney General in the North Carolina Department of Justice. In those roles, he successfully led efforts to put more violent criminals behind bars by expanding the state’s DNA database, wrote the School Safety Act and the Identity Theft Protection Act, worked to protect kids from online sexual predators, and helped run payday lenders charging loan shark interest rates out of the state.
Stein grew up in Chapel Hill, is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and earned law and public policy degrees from Harvard University. He and his wife Anna have three children – who all attend or attended North Carolina public schools, like Anna and he did.

Steve Mange serves as Senior Policy & Strategy Counsel to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, where his current focus is on strategies to address the opioid epidemic. Steve previously worked as Senior Policy Advisor to the Illinois Attorney General, Executive Director of the Illinois Meth Project, and consultant to the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws. He has a B.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, an M.A. in Latin American History from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Jasmine S. McGhee serves as Special Deputy Attorney General and Director of the Public Protection Section at the North Carolina Department of Justice (NCDOJ). The Public Protection Section is the forward-facing unit of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office and handles public safety policy, outreach, and related litigation, including on gender-based violence, criminal justice reform, and consumer protection. Ms. McGhee is the Lead Counsel for the Governor’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, which in December 2020 published and is working to implement 125 recommendations to improve racial equity in North Carolina’s criminal justice system. She is also the Attorney General’s representative on the NC Human Trafficking Commission and supervises the office’s participation on the NC Domestic Violence Commission, the Financial Literacy Council, and the Victim’s Compensation Fund. Ms. McGhee also serves as a member of the Statewide Reentry Council Collaborative, including its Steering Committee. Prior to joining NCDOJ, Jasmine worked as a litigator in the areas of white-collar crime and government investigations and had an active pro bono practice on civil rights and human trafficking matters. She practiced at both K&L Gates in Raleigh, NC and WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. Jasmine also clerked for Judge Andre M. Davis, then on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with honors and distinction and from Columbia Law School, where she was a Paul Robeson Scholar and an essay and review editor for the Columbia Law Review.
Speakers
