Health Promotion Coordinator Tackles Alcohol Abuse

Though she has only been on the job since the beginning of the semester, Ithaca College’s coordinator of health promotion and substance abuse prevention believes the groundwork has already been laid for her efforts to bear fruit. Priscilla Quirk, who joined the College in the newly created position in January, also believes her two decades of experience in health education can be put to good use in building on that groundwork.

"Ithaca College has sent clear messages that the abuse of alcohol and drinking by underage students will not be condoned," says Quirk. "At the same time, however, the College is providing both services to students who need help with substance abuse problems and positive alternatives to drinking."

Quirk’s position was created in response to one of the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention. Working out of the counseling center, she is responsible for developing programs aimed at promoting healthy behaviors and reducing the risks associated with alcohol and drug use. She has been charged with developing a peer education program; chairing a health promotion committee comprising faculty, staff, and students; coordinating a social marketing campaign; assessing the extent of substance-related problems among students; and offering health promotion workshops and educational materials to the College community.

"It is gratifying to know that the College had already begun implementing some of the task force’s recommendations by the time I was hired," says Quirk. "Changing the nature of Fountain Day was one critical step in the process of altering the campus atmosphere; creating more non-alcohol alternative activities such as ‘IC after Dark’ is another."

From 1994 to 2001 Quirk was a health education specialist in the Newton, Massachusetts, school district. In that role she supervised all aspects of a Safe and Drug Free Schools grant, coordinated the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, and facilitated peer leadership programs. She had previously served as assistant director of the CASPAR Alcohol and Drug Education Program in Somerville, Massachusetts, and as a health/community educator for programs in Massachusetts and Georgia. Quirk spent several years teaching and volunteering with community service agencies in Kenya, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. She holds a bachelor’s degree in community education from the Friends World Program at Southampton College of Long Island University and a master’s degree in health education from Boston University.

"I see the most daunting challenge as reaching students who are already drinking in an abusive manner, because they aren’t as receptive to the messages the College is trying to send," says Quirk. "But these efforts aren’t being done in a vacuum, and I look forward to working with the entire College community to see that those messages get through."