About

Who We Are

The Youth Engagement Alliance for Tobacco Control is an organization of committed individuals focused on tobacco control for youth. We consist of many national, state, tribal, territorial and regional professionals who work with youth to fight tobacco. Our mission is creating a unified voice to cultivate and advance effective strategies for youth engagement and advocacy in tobacco control by providing support, networking, training and resources for those working with youth.

In 2008, Truth Initiative (then Legacy) and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids partnered together to create the first ever Coordinator Camp, a conference dedicated to training and supporting adult coordinators working with youth in tobacco control across the country, where over one hundred adult coordinators attended and received training and resources to support their work preserving the integrity of youth engagement within tobacco control.

Over the course of the next several years, coordinators continued to stay in touch and communicated an interest in year-round networking, resources and technical assistance. In December of 2012, the Youth Engagement Alliance was founded to fill that need.

What We Do

The Youth Engagement Alliance for Tobacco Control seeks to strengthen youth engagement within tobacco control by providing networking, resources and technical assistance to our 500+ member network by highlighting best practices and encouraging the sharing of ideas between coordinators in the field.

We do this through:

Quarterly webinars led by dynamic professionals in the field focusing on topics determined by our members
An aggregate of useful resources
Coordinator Camp, a conference designed specifically for coordinators who work with youth tobacco control programs around the country.

To learn more about what the Youth Engagement Alliance offers, visit the Get Involved page and join today.

Our Team

The Youth Engagement Alliance is a program of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, with collaborative support from the Truth Initiative led by a Leadership Team of experienced coordinators from successful programs from around the country. Leadership Team members collaborate together to identify Youth Engagement best practice while elevating timely tobacco control resources to support the diverse network of coordinators who make up the YEA membership from across the country.

Leadership Team

Nicole Sutton
Jordyn Schaefbauer
Ashley Burke
Heather Kennedy
Heather Kennedy
Program Manager, UpRISE- Colorado's social justice youth tobacco control movement
Melinda Ickes
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies/Director of TFTA at the University of Kentucky
Kimberlee Homer Vagadori
Project Director at the California Youth Advocacy Network
Luke Witkowski
Youth Programs Coordinator with the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Control Program