About the Presenters

Tanner Derror, MPH Tanner is a health educator for District 9 based in the Midland office. He provides health promotion programming for Midland, Bay, Saginaw, Shiawassee, and Genesee counties in Michigan. Tanner graduated with his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University in 2018. While attending Grand Valley, he worked with the University Counseling Center as a Peer Educator to promote mental health and social justice initiatives on campus. He then received his Master of Public Health degree from the Health Behavior and Health Education program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2021. Tanner has a special interest in addressing stress, loneliness, and adverse childhood experiences.

Elizabeth Williams, M.Ed. Liz is a health educator housed in Genesee County. Counties of Primary Responsibility: Genesee, Saginaw, Shiawassee, Bay, and Midland. Liz offers a variety of disease prevention and community behavioral health programs. She has a specific interest in nutrition, physical activity, sleep health and substance use disorder. Before her work as a health educator, she worked as a community nutrition instructor for MSU Extension, delivering SNAP- Ed nutrition education in Genesee County. She received her Master’s in Community Health Education from Wayne State University and her Bachelor’s in Family Studies with a concentration on Substance Abuse Education: Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment from Central Michigan University.

Abigail Cudney is a Health Educator for Michigan State University Extension. She teaches programs in response to Michigan’s emerging mental health and substance use needs, including those related to stress, trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and the opioid crisis. Abigail earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Michigan State University in Human Development and Family Studies. Abigail is a licensed social worker in Michigan and was trained in the very first cohort of Community Champions by the Michigan ACE Initiative She is a certified instructor for Mental Health First Aid and offers a diverse portfolio of educational health programs for adult audiences.

Lauren Kennedy, Ph.D. Dr. Lauren Kennedy is an Extension Specialist in Community Behavioral Health with the MSU Extension Health and Nutrition Institute. Her role includes building Extension’s capacity to improve health equity in our communities by contextualizing individual health behaviors and outcomes within broader socioecological systems and structures. She studies and develops ways that traditional Extension delivery models and practices can be enhanced through use of implementation science frameworks, critical race theory, and authentic community engagement. She brings more than 15 years of experience in developing, implementing, and evaluating community health programming to MSU Extension.

Dr. Cara Poland, MD, M.Ed, FACP, DFASAM, is a recognized expert in addiction medicine. She is a faculty member at Michigan State University. She earned her medical degree from Wayne State University and was trained in internal medicine at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in addiction medicine at Boston Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her master’s degree in education from Boston University. She has an interest in educating healthcare providers and providers-in-training to improve care for patients with substance use disorders, particularly during pregnancy and early parenting.

Dr. Sean T. Allen, DrPH, MPH, is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Allen has conducted several studies pertaining to the public health of people who inject drugs over his career, including evaluating the public health benefits of naloxone dispensation at public health vending machines.

Laura Palombi, PharmD, MPH, MAT, is the Associate Dean for Students and an Associate Professor in the Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy – Duluth. Dr. Palombi is also a consultant for area treatment court teams. She has established relationships with public health professionals, healthcare systems, and providers and has a strong background in providing effective, multi-pronged education on topics including harm reduction and opioid-emergency response.

Pamela Hughes, Ms. Pamela Hughes (enrolled member of Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation) has an extensive record of serving on Minnesota state-wide substance use and homelessness task forces and initiatives. She currently works with Dr. Palombi at the University of Minnesota on projects that aim to mitigate substance use harms among Minnesotans.