Normie awardees
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jason kilmer, ph.d.
Science of the Positive National Leadership Award, 2024
Passionately leading with heart and humor
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Sharon hirsch
Science of the Positive Organizational Transformation Award
Positively focused on growing the good
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Phyllis Bengtson
Science of the Positive Transformational Leadership Award
Purposefully leading with Spirit, Science, Action and Return
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Cynthia Tapia-Rodriguez
Science of the Positive Youth Engagement Award
Positively growing the good with curiosity, connection and hope
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2026 winners to be announced
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2026 winner to be announced
jason kilmer, Ph.D.
Science of the Positive National Leadership Award, 2024
Dr. Jason Kilmer is a national leader in the field of prevention, but he is also a close TMI colleague, one who has shaped how we all lead through the rigorous way he approaches his work, the care and respect with which he treats the people he serves, and the unmatched intelligence, insight, and humor he brings to everything he does. He makes us all better at what we do, and we are far from alone. Dr. Kilmer has impacted uncountable high school students, college students, and young adults through his work on alcohol and cannabis prevention and harm reduction. He has inspired thousands of academics and researchers through the more than 100 publications that he has authored or co-authored, and through his educational (and hysterical) trainings, keynotes, and webinars. If you have ever been lucky enough to be in the room when Dr. Kilmer is presenting, it is an experience you never forget.
As a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington, Dr. Kilmer has focused much of his career on designing and evaluating brief interventions aimed at reducing alcohol and other drug-related harms. His work helped pioneer the use of harm reduction approaches that move beyond abstinence-only models—offering more realistic, evidence-based strategies that acknowledge and mitigate risk.
A hallmark of Dr. Kilmer’s contributions is his commitment to translating science into practice. He has led numerous federally funded research projects, including those supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), developing personalized feedback tools that help individuals make safer, more informed decisions. These tools—delivered both in person and online—have become widely used by colleges and prevention programs across the country. Kilmer also played a major role in developing CollegeAIM, a resource from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that helps campuses select and implement effective alcohol prevention strategies.
During his career, Dr. Kilmer has received numerous high-level awards for excellence in prevention, teaching, and service, including the National Prevention Network’s Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the field of prevention, the Sue Kraft Fussell Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, the Washington State Prevention Professional Award of Excellence, and the Excellence in Teaching award by the MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Training Program. It was nonetheless a privilege to present him with one of our first-ever Normie Awards, to acknowledge his leadership in the field, to our team, and to prevention practitioners across the country.
Sharon Hirsch
Science of the positive organizational transformation award, 2024
Sharon Hirsch didn’t just change her organization’s name—she reshaped its identity around a powerful new frame: promoting positive childhoods for every family in North Carolina. As CEO of what had long been known as Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina (PCANC), Sharon and her team knew that the name no longer reflected the full scope of their mission. Their work focused not only on preventing harm, but on actively promoting strategies that nurture positive childhoods, advocating for policies that prioritize children and families, and equipping professionals with tools, training, and support to strengthen families across the state.
After Dr. Jeff Linkenbach presented about the Science of the Positive at their Statewide Summit in 2023, Sharon knew it was time to make a change, and she made short work of it. In the following year, PCANC announced a total rebrand, and became Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina, providing a national example of how the Science of the Positive can transform organizational branding, messaging and communication.
When Sharon received her Normie at the 2024 Montana Summer Institute, she inspired the entire room with her words. She said, “Folks would always say, your job must be so hard. It must be so difficult to talk about child abuse every day. And my response was always, I don’t talk about child abuse every day. I talk about what we need to do to support and strengthen families. And we had so much trouble getting support from organizations that should be allies in the work. We’ve made this organizational transformation in alignment with the Science of the Positive, in alignment with Prevent Child Abuse America, and with our theory of change that is really focused on what families want.
“As we talked about what our new name should be, we thought, should we be the North Carolina Alliance for Positive Childhoods? Should we be the Alliance for Positive Childhoods? And the most powerful response from a board member was, tons of organizations start with North Carolina or lead with ‘Alliance’ or ‘Collaborative.’ Nobody else is leading with Positive.”
“The biggest, most transformational thing is that everyone we talk to about the work can now see themselves in it. When we talked about preventing child abuse, families didn’t see themselves in that, businesses didn’t see a role in that, faith communities didn’t think that was happening in their community—but everyone wants to see positive childhoods for their families and their communities.”
You can visit the Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina’s rebranded website, which is powerfully positive from the very first word, here.
Phyllis Bengtson
Science of the Positive Transformational Leadership Award, 2025
For more than two decades, Positive Community Norms (PCN) has been at the heart of Minnesota’s youth substance prevention efforts—thanks to the transformational vision and leadership of Phyllis Bengtson. As the Prevention Policy Lead at the Minnesota Department of Human Services-Behavioral Health Administration, Phyllis has guided nearly 50 different communities in growing healthy norms and protective factors among their middle and high school students and in increasing community capacity for positive prevention work.
Phyllis experienced a turning point in her career in the early 2000s when she attended one of Jeff Linkenbach’s trainings on the Science of the Positive and the Positive Community Norms (PCN) frameworks. At that moment, she underwent a profound shift in perspective. After 12 years of working to reduce youth substance use through risk- and harm-based messaging, Phyllis realized that something critical was missing: a focus on what young people were already doing right.
But Phyllis doesn’t do anything halfway. Determined to implement this new approach with fidelity and impact, she embedded PCN into the state’s planning and implementation grant program, and developed a team of Regional Prevention Coordinators to provide support, training, and technical assistance. She wanted to ensure that communities could do the work effectively, and with enough time to actually see results. Under her leadership, Minnesota DHS launched grants supporting cohorts of ten school districts—each given five full years to use PCN to create positive change across individuals, families, schools, and communities.
The results have been powerful. In the first cohort (2004–2010), 30-day alcohol use among 9th graders dropped from 28.6% above the state average to 4.8% below it. Even three years after the grant ended, those communities continued to see growth in non-use norms. The second cohort experienced similarly promising outcomes: when their work began, 74% of 9th graders reported not using alcohol in the past 30 days. Five years later, that number had increased to 83%.
Since then, three additional PCN cohorts have been funded, and the scope of their grants has expanded to include non-use norms around tobacco, e-cigarettes, and marijuana. And the ripples of change keep flowing outward: seeing the transformation of their neighbors, new communities have reached out to learn how they can apply PCN. What’s more, 88% of communities that received PCN grants went on to receive federal Drug-Free Communities funding to continue their work, while only 37% of non-PCN communities had the same success.
Thanks to Phyllis’s transformational leadership, tens of thousands of Minnesota students, parents, educators, and community members now know a vital truth: most Minnesota youth do not use alcohol or other drugs. Phyllis has created a powerful model that can be replicated in other states to drive ongoing positive change, ten communities at a time.
Click here to watch a 13 minute documentary about the Minnesota project.
CYNTHIA tAPIA-RODRIGUEZ
Science of the Positive Youth Engagement Award, 2025
Cynthia Tapia-Rodriguez has a big vision for growing positive attitudes, behaviors, and leadership skills among youth, one big enough to match the size of the Broward County Public School District, the sixth largest in the nation. Only Cynthia could imagine a one-day Science of the Positive training for over 500 middle and high school students—and only Cynthia could inspire us to actually do it.
Despite repeated delays and reimaginings due to the challenges of COVID, Cynthia never wavered. Her determination and optimism carried the project forward until, finally, three of our trainers arrived at the stunning Fort Lauderdale venue she had secured. The event was everything she had envisioned: high-energy, uplifting, and deeply impactful.
But it wasn’t just excitement and engagement—students walked away with powerful tools. Our trainers guided them through Science of the Positive leadership principles and helped them understand how misperceptions of norms shape their choices around substance use, bullying, and more.
As a family counselor and the coordinator of the Choose Peace & Project BRAIN Programs in the Equity, Diversity & School Climate Department, Cynthia has devoted her career to advancing health, hope, and safety for students. The 500 young people in that room that day were just a fraction of the many lives she’s touched with her kind heart, ambitious vision, and unshakable passion for empowering youth.