Thomas A Workman, Ph.D.
Principal Communication Researcher and Evaluator
Thomas Workman has more than eighteen years of experience working with communities and institutions to address illegal and excessive consumption of substances by young adults through evidence-based environmental strategies. His experience working in alcohol and other drug misuse includes ten years as Associate Director and Communications Coordinator of a campus-community coalition in Lincoln, Nebraska through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “A Matter of Degree” Program. The coalition’s approach was awarded as a Model Program by the U.S. Department of Education, and Dr. Workman received a Facilitator’s Award from the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson College of Law for his work in Nebraska, where he served as a member of the Board and faculty member for the National Conference on Law and Policy. Since leaving Nebraska, Tom works with communities across the country to create community-based coalitions that employ environmental strategies through a variety of funding sources including the U.S. Department of Education, EUDL and SPF SIG. Tom has served in a variety of national leadership roles in substance abuse prevention, as a Fellow for the United States Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug, and Violence Prevention, a member of the Council of Advisors for the Network Addressing Collegiate Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, and as the National Chair for the NASPA Alcohol and Other Drug Knowledge Community. More recently, Tom served as the Higher Education Task Lead for the National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments, as a faculty expert for the National College Health Improvement Project (NCHIP) through Dartmouth College, and as a consultant to a joint NCAA/NASPA effort to engage athletic coaches in alcohol prevention and intervention. Tom has published a variety of book chapters, monographs, and articles on the subject, and recently published a chapter on the use of Edgework (voluntary risk-taking) in alcohol prevention for the Sage Handbook of Risk Communication with Steven Lyng.