Leadership through use of Liberating Structures: Online and in-person
April 7, April 14, April 29, April 30, and May 14
The goal of the 2025 Northwest PTTC Prevention Leadership Academy is to engage leaders in the prevention workforce to identify and build upon their strengths to encourage the heart, model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, and enable others to act effectively in prevention.
The Leadership Academy combines both virtual and in-person sessions to explore leadership principles for prevention coalitions using a set of Liberating Structures. The Northwest PTTC is again collaborating with a dynamic group of facilitators, including Anna Jackson, and Fisher Qua from Liberating Structures, to present the academy. Liberating Structures is a set of practical methods and tools designed to foster active participation and create innovation among team members, collaborators, and communities. Their use flattens hierarchy and facilitates trust-building and shared commitment to group values and outcomes. Northwest PTTC staff is excited to be collaborating with facilitators of Liberating Structures to present the academy.
By popular demand, we have added a special track for returning leadership academy participants. This track will focus on advancing your practice of using liberating structures and taking action on your leadership growth goals. We hope you will join us to extend your learning.
Event Details
The primary audience is community-level and prevention practitioners representing states and tribes throughout HHS Region 10: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. New and returning participants are welcome to join. The Academy registration will be limited to 80 participants.
- Attend all sessions of the Academy on scheduled days/times.
- Use a web camera and have the appropriate technology to join the three online sessions (i.e., internet connection, built-in or USB webcam, laptop/tablet, built-in/USB/Bluetooth speakers & microphone).
- Ability to join the in-person academy in Portland, Oregon on April 29 and 30, 2025 (see the In-Person Travel & Lodging Details drop down for hotel details).
- Actively engage in both online and in-person sessions.
- Following the April 7th session, complete the Pre-Session 2 Prep Work Packet (including listening to several podcasts) and complete the leadership self-assessment by April 14th.
The Leadership Conference is free of charge; however, participants must arrange and pay for their own hotel, per diem, and travel expenses. No meals will be provided.
Room block, please use the name Northwest PTTC Leadership Academy.
University Place Hotel and Conference Center
310 SW Lincoln Street
Portland, OR
In order to receive 20 continuing education hours, participants are expected to complete up to 2 hours outside of the sessions, join each session, and be on-camera for the on-line sessions. Participants will need to confirm with their certification board to determine if these certification hours are accepted towards their specific certification requirements.
Leadership Academy Schedule: Save These Dates and Times
Exploring Liberated Structures to Flatten Leadership Hierarchy
12 noon – 01:30 pm Alaska
1:00 pm – 02:30 pm Pacific
2:00 pm – 03:30 pm Mountain
Personal Leadership Assessment & Growth Opportunities.
12 noon – 01:30 pm Alaska
1:00 pm – 02:30 pm Pacific
2:00 pm – 03:30 pm Mountain
Enhancing Leadership by Using Liberating Structures
April 29: 10:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific
April 30: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm Pacific
Leadership Wisdom Group: Application of Learning to Leadership Planning
12 noon – 01:30 pm Alaska
1:00 pm – 02:30 pm Pacific
2:00 pm – 03:30 pm Mountain
Meet Your Leadership Academy Facilitators
Anna Jackson is a consultant specializing in designing and facilitating collaborative learning experiences, strategy development and implementation, capacity building, program design and evaluation, and adventurous leadership development. Liberating Structures (LS) are participatory methods central to her work. Anna first adopted the LS repertoire in 2011 and now works with others as they integrate LS into their everyday and strategic practices, using the repertoire to help individuals and groups imagine new possibilities for their work and move toward the future together. She has a particular focus on supporting social services systems change and promoting community-based mental health support.
Dr. Brittany Cooper is Associate Professor of Human Development, Youth and Family Extension Specialist, and Graduate Faculty in the Prevention Science PhD program at Washington State University. She is also currently the President of the Society for Prevention Research and is the Director of the Northwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center. Dr. Cooper’s research, teaching, and outreach centers around the translation of prevention science for public health impact. For over a decade, she has collaborated with federal, state, and other community leaders to improve the field’s understanding of how best to support evidence-based prevention programs in diverse community settings.
Capetra Parker, MPH, Prevention Strategist, Evidence2Success Project Director, UW Social Development Research Group. Capetra supports communities across the nation as the Evidence2Success project director and coaches several Communities That Care (CTC) Plus communities in the U.S. She has also contributed to the workforce development of Prevention Specialists through training and curriculum development in diverse capacities. Ms. Parker has co-authored journal articles about the implementation of CTC in urban communities through the Center for Healthy African American Men through Partnerships (CHAAMPS). Her work focuses on promoting system changes and cross sector collaboration. She has a special interest in empowering communities to employ strategies that address race, equity, and inclusion disparities. Ms. Parker earned her MPH from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Cyndy Hillier, has been in the prevention field working in her community since 2011. In addition to being a graduate from CADCA’s National Coalition Academy she was also in the first cohort of CASAT/PTTC/CADCA’s Coalition Business Administration certification. Cyndy uses her passion and skills to serve as part of the Oregon Coalition of Prevention Professionals (OCPP) Executive Leadership Team and is dedicated to ensuring preventionist are at the table for conversations focused on the youth and families in Oregon. Cyndy serves as a City Councilor for the City of Tualatin in her spare time as well as being a softball mom chasing her two daughters from their t-ball through collegiate careers. She and her husband and precious dog Charlie have lived in Tualatin, OR for 26+ years and look forward to many more.
Debby Jones is a Certified Prevention Specialist and the Prevention Director for Wasco County and YouthThink in the state of Oregon. She also serves as the counties Overdose Prevention Coordinator. Jones received her BS Degree from Brigham Young University. She currently serves as the Chair for the State of Oregon’s Addiction and Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council and the Vice-Chair of Oregon’s Alcohol and Other Drug Policy Commission. She is a Board Member of the 4 Rivers Early Learning Hub as well as the Oregon Coalition of Prevention Professionals and a member of the Northwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center’s Advisory Council. Jones is also an active member of Fairplay for Kids and their On-line Harms subcommittee. She is a certified QPR, and SAMHSA’s Prevention Core Competencies Instructor. Jones is the Co-Creator of T2T Connection, a resiliency resource for children, teens and parents.
Ms. Jones has presented at the following conferences:
- National Prevention Network
- Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse
- Integrating Primary and Behavioral Health Care Through the Lens of Prevention
- Mind Your Mind
- Oregon Prevention Summit
Michelle Frye-Spray specializes in integrating prevention science, capacity-building, and workforce development to expedite the adoption and diffusion of evidence-based interventions that achieve intended outcomes. With over 30 years of experience in substance misuse prevention, including 15 years focused on managing and delivering Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) services to states, jurisdictions, and tribes across the western region, she has extensive subject matter expertise in designing and delivering learner-centered, skills-based training and consultations to secondary educators, prevention practitioners, pre-professionals, coalition members, including under-served populations and organizations, on the application of prevention science. As part of her work with SAMSHA’s Northwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC), she has chaired and co-chaired the Cannabis Prevention and Community, Coalition, and Collaboration Workgroups, and as a member of the Prevention Workforce Development Workgroup contributed to updating the SPF Application for Success Training (SAPST).
Nicole Eisenberg, PhD, is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Washinton’s Social Development Research Group and the Director of International Programs at The Center for Communities That Care. She co-leads the Northwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) in collaboration with Washington State University (WSU) and the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), providing training and technical assistance for the prevention workforce in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Her research is aimed at promoting wellbeing and preventing behavioral health problems among children and youth. With expertise in prevention science, program evaluation, and international collaborations, her recent work has focused on understanding and measuring risk and protective factors and developmental outcomes in children and youth, extending the reach of preventive interventions and adapting them to new contexts, and the use of qualitative and mixed methods research. She has worked collaboratively with communities to help them collect and use survey data for prevention planning. She has native proficiency in both English and Spanish and provides bilingual training for preventive interventions, including the Guiding Good Choices parenting program.
S Fisher Qua I am based in northern New Mexico. My primary areas of focus and involvement professionally have been in education (postsecondary, though with an increasing familiarity in K-12), community health & wellbeing, and supporting scientific research organizations. I am very committed to developing participatory approaches to working with complex problems that tap into more of each person’s intelligence, imagination, and creativity.