2010 Tobacco Free Texas Award Winners
What are the Tobacco-Free Texas Awards?
Statistics are all too clear that tobacco use is the single largest cause of preventable death in Texas. Over 24,000 Texans lose their lives due to tobacco each year, costing the state in excess of $10 billion. These statistics are alarming, but not insurmountable. Throughout the state, individuals, community groups, organizations and businesses are working toward reducing this burden for the state.
The Tobacco-Free Texas Awards have been developed in order to celebrate, remember, and honor those individuals and groups in Texas who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in striving to realize the vision of a Tobacco-Free Texas.
What are the criteria for being nominated to receive an award?
Awards will be given to the nominees who have done outstanding work, implemented innovative, creative and unique strategies to benefit the state, a local community, specific population or group, etc.
The activities/efforts of the nominee must address at least one of the following goals: Prevent youth initiation of tobacco use, Promote cessation for youth and adults already using tobacco, Reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, Eliminate disparities among diverse and special populations.
2011 Tobacco Free Texas Award Nomination FormCarol Lauder
Carol Lauder has dedicated a decade of service to managing the Tobacco Enforcement Grant program. Her extensive knowledge combined with her management skills allows her to effectively manage priorities and meet program goals. She is a talented speaker who is a strong advocate for a tobacco-free Texas. She continually waves the flag to reach the highest possible goals for Texas. Her efforts have contributed to Texas’ success meeting federally mandated Synar rates. Through the Comptroller’s block grant program she has awarded and managed $20 million in grant funds. The funds were awarded to local law enforcement and independent school districts with on-campus police for tobacco education and enforcement. Under her management, the number of grantees has increased by 63% going from 83 to 224 awardees. The award of funds has resulted in 57,632 stings and 55,555 inspections.
Additionally, Carol takes an active role developing law enforcement and Health Human Resources personnel at this conference every year. Carol, a former smoker, has not only dedicated herself to a tobacco-free Texas in her career but also in her personal life. She struggled with the addiction to nicotine but has lived without them for the past 20 plus years. When she isn’t promoting the grant program or instructing law enforcement, Carol is known to facilitate smoking cessation training for the comptroller’s wellness program.
Livia Clandorf
Livia Clandorf was recently named the 2010 International Grant Award Winner by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids for her leadership in the fight against tobacco. Livia was awarded the grant and honored as a Youth Advocate of the Year at a gala held in Washington, D.C. that was attended by more than 400 public health, political, civic and business leaders. Livia has traveled to India twice in the past year to attend the World Conference on Tobacco or Health, and the Global Youth Meet. She spearheaded a letter writing campaign to India’s health minister to protest smoking in movies and has collaborated with the Salaam Bombay Foundation in Mumbai to initiate a youth advocacy program for graduates of their high school program. In Columbia County, Livia was involved in a successful campaign to limit youth-oriented tobacco advertising in convenience markets. Additionally, when her tobacco control group recently lost funding, Livia was able to secure a local grant to continue her work. Nationally, she has attended conferences to share her successful strategies with other youth advocates and helped organize a demonstration at the Phillip Morris International shareholder meeting.
Livia plans to use the grant award to expand her efforts to reduce tobacco use in the U.S. and around the world. Her goal is to prevent youth from smoking and protect everyone from secondhand smoke. "Ninety percent of smokers start before the age of 18," Livia says. "Tobacco companies are very good at engaging kids and are clearly not going to stop, so neither can I."
Melvin Nelson
Legacy, the largest national public health foundation dedicated to keeping teens from smoking and providing resources to smokers who want to quit, recently selected 15 young people to represent the organization as a part of its Youth Activism Fellowship (YAF) program. The Youth Activism Fellows will develop innovative and effective initiatives to help Legacy continue its efforts to communicate the harmful effects of tobacco use, with an emphasis on communicating those messages to teens and young adults across the nation. The Youth Activism Fellowship provides an opportunity for young adults, between the ages of 18 to 24, to build leadership in the tobacco control movement through training, coaching, peer to peer networking and direct action. This year's class of Fellows will complete a term of service, beginning in January 2010 and ending June 2011. During this 18-month period, they will contribute to a group project designed to benefit the national tobacco prevention and control movement and will plan and lead a local project in each of their home communities. Fellows will also attend four mandatory gatherings that will offer team building, technical assistance, and personal and professional development opportunities. They will also have the opportunity to meet with their Congressional representatives on Capitol Hill to discuss local tobacco control efforts.
We are extremely proud that the great state of Texas is represented on this elite group of 15 young adults from across the nation. Our very own Melvin Nelson was selected to serve as a Youth Activism Fellow through June 2011. Melvin has been a part of the Texas Tobacco Prevention Initiative since its inception in 2000, when he was just 14 years old. Now, 10 years later, he continues to serve us at the local and state level, and now even on a national level. Melvin, we love you and are so very proud of you!
Dr. Brian Colwell & Dr. Dennis Smith
Dr. Colwell and Dr. Smith have spent the better part of their professional lives delving into the reasons behind youth taking up tobacco and developing ways to effectively intervene to reduce tobacco abuse among youth. Based on their prior research they were funded by the Texas Cancer Council in 1997 to develop a cessation program for adolescents. When the Texas Legislature passed legislation that year requiring the state health department to develop and implement a course for youth cited for tobacco cessation, Colwell and Smith partnered with state agencies (Texas Department of Health, Comptroller of Public Accounts and Texas Cancer Council) to change the focus of their curriculum and speed the roll out so that within six months of the law going into effect January 1, 1998, there were instructors available throughout the state. Since that time they have been in a continuous partnership with state health officials to revise, evaluate, train and otherwise support individuals and institutions throughout the state in providing the state mandated class to youth in every corner of the state. While the course is not designed or presented as a "cessation" class, one of every three youth taking the class report being tobacco free six months later. They have provided consultation and assistance to others related to tobacco including the Paso del Norte Health Foundation in El Paso and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri. Since beginning their work with Texas adolescents, these two researchers have published numerous peer-reviewed articles related to youth tobacco use and interventions with youth using tobacco.
In addition to their work in tobacco, they both are active researchers in the areas of school health, adolescent mental health and substance abuse, and continue to teach undergraduate and graduate students at their respective schools in order to develop the future leaders in health education and promotion in Texas and the nation.
Iris Hancock & Sugarland MS TATU
Iris Hancock is a 7th grade Health teacher, coach, and Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) sponsor at Sugar Land Middle School. Iris worked at Christa McAuliffe MS prior to transferring to Sugar Land MS in August 2009. She has been enthusiastically spearheading tobacco prevention activities at Christa McAuliffe for the last 10 years. This school year, Iris implemented the TATU program at Sugar Land MS. Iris and her 37 TATU students have already presented the TATU program to over 500 children at four elementary school campuses: Sugar Mill Elementary; Lakeview Elementary; Barrington Place Elementary; Rita Drabek Elementary; and, her TATU group is scheduled to present at Town West Elementary on February 24 and Barbara Jordan Elementary on March 31. The Sugar Land MS TATU club is the largest middle school TATU club in Fort Bend ISD. In addition, Iris and her TATU students meet every Wednesday and plan school-wide activities for the Great American Smoke-out and they also participated in Tobacco Free Kids Day this year – earning a scholarship to this conference!
Steve Roberts
Steve began working with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in 1999 to ensure the Tobacco Settlement dollars went where they belonged: to help fight the influence of tobacco on the lives of Texans, protecting youth and helping current tobacco users quit. At the first Texas Tobacco Conference in 2000, Steve helped lead 100 Texas youth to create the DUCK- a hip-talking, smart-alecky mascot who knows that "Tobacco is Foul." For 10 years, Steve has guided all of the state’s media campaigns for tobacco, including DUCK's activities, the growth of Worth It? and Spit It Out, and the Yes you Can and Share Air efforts. Steve even played the DUCK a total of 97 times, but NOT the time he was nearly run over on a racetrack! (not that he was counting or anything) He also survived the "Tobacco Is Foul" van crash of 2002 on I-10 in Beaumont. Thanks to his heroics (or hysterics), no DUCKS nor state agency personnel were hurt! He has told the story of being asked to dance in the DUCK costume by the Mayor of Beaumont approximately 54 times. And he DID dance, by the way! Steve has twice worked with state officials on the 5-year plan to reduce tobacco's toll on Texans. He was also an integral part of the efforts to establish a smoking ban in Austin, and has contributed to the efforts in other communities as well. As Board President for Texans Standing Tall, Steve has continued to support the efforts of coalitions around the state in using best practices to protect youth. With all of this said, Steve is probably the most proud of the fact that the success of the efforts in Texas that he has played a part in have achieved a sustained 36% reduction in youth tobacco use – a number that even beats the results from the Truth Campaign's efforts in Florida.
Dave Williams
Dave has a heart of gold, and has truly helped to make all of this (the conference and youth track) possible. Without his vision and passion for youth leadership and prevention, the Texas tobacco conference would likely not be around. Back in April of 2000 he suggested just a few weeks from the conference that we invite youth to attend, too. The rest is history! He has dedicated over 20 years of his life to prevention, education, and helping Texas become a healthier, safer place to live.