UAlbany Psychologists Named Associates of Prestigious National Center

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University at Albany psychologists M. Dolores Cimini and Daniel A. Trujillo are among a select few chosen as Center Associates by the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention. Working as trainers, consultants, and evaluators, they represent an elite group of experts from around the country.

Every two years the Center selects approximately 30 associates from 30 different institutions on the basis of their prior leadership, expertise in a specific content area, and success as a community mobilizer, trainer or writer. According to the Center, two people being chosen from the same organization in the same year is rare.

Center Associates help strengthen alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention efforts on U.S. college and university campuses. In response to alcohol-related tragedies and research which shows that, while most college students are younger than the legal drinking age of 21, more than 43 percent have engaged in "risk drinking," Congress in 1999 authorized U.S. ED to identify and promote effective campus-based programs.

In July 2000, UAlbany was one of 13 institutions to be awarded an "Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Models on Colleges Campuses Grant" from U.S. ED, with funding totaling $100,324. The funds were used to enhance its already existing programs.

Cimini is program director of UAlbany's Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program. She has designed and implemented training programs and credit-bearing courses in peer education and helping skills for students entering the health and mental health fields. She also consults in the development of peer education programs at other colleges and universities on a nationwide level.

Trujillo is coordinator for alcohol and drug prevention at UAlbany and is a staff psychologist at the University Counseling Center. He earned his doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he worked in a nationally recognized alcohol and other drug prevention program. He has specialized research and educational expertise in alcohol and other drug prevention for at-risk college students.

The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention serves as the national resource center for institutions of higher education concerned with reducing alcohol and other drug use. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Center offers training, technical assistance, publications and other information to assist those who want to take an active part in changing the environment in which students make decisions about alcohol and other drug use.

For more University at Albany information, visit our World Wide Web site at https://www.albany.edu.

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October 9, 2001

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