Montana Winter InstitutE 2026
Ready to strengthen what’s strong in your community? Join us online for the 2026 Montana Winter Institute and learn the key skills for building positive, protective norms. We will gather January 26–30 for one action-packed online hour each day. Just $49 for all five sessions!
Learn more about our stellar faculty line-up below.
Building on what’s strong with us:
Key skills for growing positive Community norms
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Jeff Linkenbach
FOUNDING DIRECTOR & RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT
THE MONTANA INSTITUTEMonday, January 26 @ 12:00CT
Intro to the Positive Community Norms FrameworkThe developer of this evidence-based framework will unpack how it is used to uncover and grow positive norms and cultures in organizations, systems, and communities.
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Dan Wuori
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD POLICY SOLUTIONS, AUTHOR OF THE DAYCARE MYTH
Tuesday, January 27 @12:00CT
PCN Key Skill #1: LeadershipLearn how the Positive has shaped Dan’s contagious approach to leadership as he galvanizes a global village around early childhood flourishing through policy & practice.
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Sara Thompson
DIRECTOR OF TRAINING & COMMUNICATIONS AT THE MONTANA INSTITUTE
Wednesday, January 28 @12:00CT
PCN Key Skill #2: CommunicationSara will peel back the layers of the eight steps of the Montana Model for PCN Communications demonstrating how they simplify and amplify communications to grow positive norms.
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ALI Chorley Dzieweczynski
DIRECTOR OF THE ORONO COALITION & SCIENCE OF THE POSITIVE TRAINER AT THE MONTANA INSTITUTE
Thursday, January 29 @12:00 CT
PCN Key Skill #3: IntegrationAli will illuminate how integrating the Science of the Positive into school district and coalition DNA has resulted in transformed norms of connection, collaboration, and wellbeing.
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HELYNN STEPHENS NELSON
PEOPLE OPERATIONS LEADER AT GOOGLE
Friday, January 30 @12:00CT
PCN Key Skill #4: ReflectionHow can we make meaning of our work in ways that move us from busy to effective? Helynn will introduce reflective practices (from low-tech to AI-driven) that strengthen teams and fuel effectiveness.
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Register for the Winter Institute today
Get live and recorded access to all five sessions for just $49. Click below to register!
Jeff linkenbach
Monday, January 26 @ 12:00CT | Intro to the Positive Community Norms Framework
The developer of this evidence-based framework will unpack how it is used to uncover and grow
positive norms and cultures in organizations, systems, and communities.
Dr. Jeff Linkenbach has been an innovator in social norms research and public health leadership for over three decades. He is the developer of the Science of the Positive and Positive Community Norms frameworks, which have been utilized by tribal, federal, state and local organizations to achieve positive change and transformation around issues such as child maltreatment, substance abuse, and traffic safety.
Jeff holds a master’s degree in counseling and a doctorate of education with a focus on community education and has authored or co-authored nearly 100 publications on norms change, public health, and leadership and delivered more than 500 keynotes, training, and presentations. He is a co-investigator of the HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) study at the HOPE National Resource Center at Tufts Medical Center and a past Fellow at the Mansfield Academy for Global Leadership at The University of Montana. Jeff was a member of the Center for Disease Control & Prevention’s Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) think tank on Essentials for Childhood, and was commissioned by the CDC to write a supplemental paper on Promoting Positive Community Norms. He has served as a consultant and trainer for numerous prestigious organizations such as the U.S. White House (Office of National Drug Control Policy), the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, The Canadian Agriculture Safety Association, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Harvard University, The American Medical Association, The National Football League and many others.
In 1998, Jeff created the National Conference on The Social Norms Approach to Prevention, which has since transformed into the renowned Montana Summer Institute, where hundreds of leaders from around the world gather each year to learn how to deepen the impact of their work. From his home in Bozeman, Montana, Jeff continues to conduct research, write papers, and inspire leaders in prevention and beyond.
DAN WUORI
Tuesday, January 27 @12:00CT | PCN Key Skill #1: Leadership
Learn how the Positive has shaped Dan’s contagious approach to leadership as he galvanizes
a global village around early childhood flourishing through policy & practice.
With more than 30 years of early years leadership, Dr. Dan Wuori is the Founder and President of Early Childhood Policy Solutions, a bipartisan public policy consultancy focused on the needs of young children, their families, and the early years professionals who serve them. He serves concurrently as a Strategic Advisor on Early Childhood to the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation. In both roles – and in his prior position as the founding Director of Early Childhood at The Hunt Institute in Cary, North Carolina – Dr. Wuori works alongside governors and state legislators to improve early years policy across the United States. But to parents the world over, Dan is known not for his policy work, but for his innovative use of social media to educate about infants and toddlers – with more than 300,000 followers tuning in to his daily video child development lessons across platforms. This work was recently profiled in The New York Times, which called his X (Twitter) account “a font of delight and edification…educational, but also – put simply – awwwww.”
His new book The Daycare Myth: What We Get Wrong About Early Care and Education (and What We Should Do About It) was released in September 2024. Upon its announcement, the book – which explores the costly disconnect between what we know and what we do when it comes to the needs of young children – spent more than a week at the top of Amazon’s education best sellers list. It is now in its seventh printing.
Dan is currently at work on a second book, Wonderment: Our First Three Years, which was recently acquired by Ballantine Books (a division of Penguin-Random House) for publication in early 2027.
A former kindergarten teacher and school district administrator, Dr. Wuori served as Deputy Director of South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness – the state’s comprehensive, public-private early learning initiative – from 2005-2018. In this role he worked alongside elected leaders to develop significant, bipartisan support for early childhood education and oversaw system innovations including the delivery of public prekindergarten in private, community- and faith-based preschools, improvements to the state’s IDEA Part C early intervention system, the creation of statewide program accountability standards, and the expansion of evidence-based home visiting programs.
He lives in Columbia, South Carolina with his wife and young adult children.
Sara thompson
Wednesday, January 28 @12:00CT | PCN Key Skill #2: Communication
Sara will peel back the layers of the eight steps of the Montana Model for PCN Communications
demonstrating how they simplify and amplify communications to grow positive norms.
Sara Thompson is the Director of Training and Communications at The Montana Institute, specializing in the development and delivery of training, technical assistance, and communications centered on the Science of the Positive Framework and Positive Community Norms.
Since 2006, Sara has worked with community coalitions in her home state of Minnesota and nationally, focusing on correcting misperceptions of norms by applying the 8-Step Montana Model for Positive Community Norms Communications. Through The Montana Institute, she offers consultation, training, tool development, and technical support to communities applying the Science of the Positive and Positive Community Norms Frameworks to prevention.
Sara spent almost a decade as a morning radio show host before she began her marketing consulting business in 2002. With over two decades of experience as a strategic marketing consultant, Sara has served a wide range of clients, including large and small companies, non-profit organizations, cooperatives, festivals, community events and prevention coalitions.
Sara finds immense reward in sharing the Science of the Positive framework with communities, exploring important questions and concerns, diving into data, and watching people light up with passion and excitement as they experience a paradigm shift that The Positive does, in fact, exist! She loves to roll up her sleeves and connect with coalitions, organizations, and agencies at the community level as they create messages from data and develop Positive Community Norms communications. Many people say that Sara's authenticity, energy, and optimism is refreshing and contagious.
Outside of work, Sara cherishes coffee time with her adult son when he visits, enjoys regularly challenging her body through exercise and fitness, and loves traveling and vacationing with her husband. She enjoys being outdoors in the woods, on the water, or in the mountains. Sara also volunteers at her church and finds great joy in connecting to a greater purpose.
ALI Chorley Dzieweczynski
Thursday, January 29 @12:00 CT | PCN Key Skill #3: Integration
Ali will illuminate how integrating the Science of the Positive into school district and coalition DNA
has resulted in transformed norms of connection, collaboration, and wellbeing.
Ali earned her Bachelor’s degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from the University of St. Thomas. With more than two decades of experience in community health, she has served in a wide range of roles—from mental health provider and crisis counselor to prevention specialist, coalition director, and university professor.
Ali began her career providing mental health support and crisis intervention for college students, often during their most vulnerable moments. These late-night calls sparked deeper questions for her—not just about how to respond, but about what might be done upstream to prevent such crises in the first place. That curiosity led her into the world of community prevention, where she served as a chemical health coordinator and prevention specialist across several Minnesota communities.
Today, Ali serves as Director of The Orono Coalition and teaches at Metro State University, where her course examines the neuropsychology of addiction, how both adverse and positive childhood experiences shape lifelong health outcomes, and how prevention can transform communities. Her life’s work is rooted in cultivating environments and relationships where all people can flourish, with a deep commitment to well-being, belonging, and resilience.
As a former client of The Montana Institute, Ali helped lead the development of a Positive Community Norms campaign that successfully reshaped perceptions of youth substance use in her local high school. Drawing on the Science of the Positive and the Cycle of Transformation, she continues to integrate these frameworks into her leadership and teaching—inviting others to transform their communities through a lens of hope, strength, and possibility.
Ali is most proud of her family life with her husband, Casey, and their four children. They live in the suburbs of Minneapolis and together, they’re on a mission to visit every U.S. national park. Ali is a life-long learner, she finds joy in adventure, time in nature, and the everyday moments that connect people to one another and to the world around them. On the weekends, you will find her cheering on her family at triathlons, soccer games, basketball tournaments and lacrosse matches, always with an iced latte in hand.
HELYNN STephens nelson
Friday, January 30 @12:00CT | PCN Key Skill #4: Reflection
How can we make meaning of our work in ways that move us from busy to effective?
Helynn will introduce reflective practices (from low-tech to AI-driven)
that strengthen teams and fuel effectiveness.
With an over 25-year career, Helynn Nelson bridges the worlds of recruiting, development, and workplace litigation. She's been a Googler for nearly a decade and currently leads its US Accommodations practice. She is also an angel investor with the Black Angel Group, who invests in ethical, high-growth technology companies. In addition to her full-time career in People Operations, Nelson also serves as an adjunct professor at both the Thomas Jefferson University School of Business and the Villanova University HR Master’s program. She is a proud graduate of Tulane University Law School, Spelman College and an accredited sommelier. She resides in Leander, Texas with her two daughters, husband and guinea pig.