Advanced Ethics for Prevention Professionals - March 27, 2025

Marissa Carlson, MS, CPS is the Executive Director of the NH Teen Institute, a leadership development nonprofit working with middle & high school students from around NH & New England in a variety of areas including substance misuse prevention, peer mentoring and creating positive school & community climate. As part of her role at TI, she oversees and facilitates training for youth participants, youth & adult volunteer program staff, and outside behavioral health and education professionals. She is a facilitator and trainer of trainers for multiple workshops developed through SAMHSA systems, is a member of the advisory council of the New England Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) and is on the DEI advisory committee for the NH Center for Nonprofits. In addition, she is the President of the Prevention Certification Board of NH, serves on the IC&RC board of directors, and serves as the chairperson of the IC&RC Credentialing Committee. Outside of her prevention work, Marissa is a founding member of Mill City Productions, a theatre company in Western Massachusetts. She graduated from Pomona College with a BA in Psychology, received an MS in Nonprofit Management from Bay Path University, and has been a Certified Prevention Specialist since 2011.

Shannon Spurlock, MA has over 30 years of experience in the fields of health education, behavioral health, and prevention.  During her 20 plus years at JSI, she has successfully managed state and community-based projects focusing on capacity building, strategic planning, evaluation, training, and other technical assistance initiatives. As a subject matter expert, she provides regional, state, and national consultation and training services for content areas, including tobacco control, coalition development, peer recovery supports, HIV prevention, substance misuse prevention, and violence prevention. With expertise in adult learning theory, health behavior change principles, and organizational development methodology, Ms. Spurlock specializes in training and technical assistance to ensure health information and data can be understood and applied by adult and youth participants, healthcare providers, educators, community organizations, and policymakers. She provided training and technical assistance to support tobacco cessation screening, intervention, and treatment at a selected pilot site for the NH Tobacco Use Treatment for Substance Use Disorder Workforce Project.  For over a decade, she has directed the RI Prevention Resource Center, providing training and technical assistance services to a broad range of state and community-based prevention providers. Ms. Spurlock is a SAMHSA certified trainer for the Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST) and basic and advance Ethics for Prevention training. She directed the RI Behavioral Health Workforce Development project focusing on building the capacity of behavioral health providers, increasing job satisfaction and retention and recruitment strategies. Ms. Spurlock directed the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)-funded Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) for the RI Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospital (BHDDH). The BRSS TACS project worked directly with Peer Recovery Specialists (PRS) and their partners to develop data collection tools, and centralized data collection and reporting system.