Meet the new public health and prevention community liaison at the WSLCB.
Here are some observations from the Tuesday May 21st WSLCB Board Caucus.
My top 3 takeaways:
- The board welcomed Sara Cooley Broschart as the agency’s new Public Health Education Liaison (audio – 11m).
- Cooley Broschart replaced the previous Public Health Education Liaison for WSLCB, Mary Segawa. In December of last year, Scott McCarty was introduced as Segawa’s replacement but shortly thereafter was no longer employed by the agency. Cooley Broschart’s hiring was first mentioned in March and she assumed her new role on April 1st.
- Cooley Broschart’s academic background is in Public Health and Cultural Anthropology. She moved to Seattle from California where she was most recently employed as the Advocacy Manager for Alcohol Justice, a non-profit alcohol “Industry Watchdog.”
- Cooley Broschart’s advocacy for Alcohol Justice included opposition to extending alcohol serving hours and successful lobbying last year in favor of AB 2914 which banned cannabinoid-infused alcohols.
- While at Alcohol Justice, Broschart helped organize the California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA), a coalition of organizations and communities united to “protect health and safety, and prevent alcohol-related harm through statewide action.”
- Last Call: Evidence and Campaigns to Reduce or Extend Trading Hours (April 11, 2018)
- Involving youth in making state-wide policy change (July 27, 2016)
- Board Chair Jane Rushford warmly welcomed Cooley Broschart to the team and asked for an update on her first few weeks.
- Cooley Broschart said she’d begun meeting people at last month’s Tribal Advisory Council and had been meeting with “public health and prevention constituents and stakeholders” to learn the “landscape” of prevention policy in Washington. She specifically mentioned meeting Julie Peterson, Senior Director of Policy at Healthy Generation and an influential voice in Washington’s Tobacco 21 initiative.
- Cooley Broschart said she represented the agency at a Springdale event and described her message as “how we are advancing the public health mission within our agency and through enforcement.” Broschart said she’d fielded questions from producers and processors.
- Cooley Broschart had been sharing Healthy Youth Survey data out to all the “SDs through data workshops.”
- She anticipated hearing from prevention groups and regional enforcement officers about “public health related” topics.
- Rushford inquired specifically about the Washington Healthy Youth (WHY) Coalition, which WSLCB co-chairs. Cooley Broschart responded that the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) had reorganized the coalition to separate prevention and treatment programs under different supervisors. HCA Policy and Program Supervisor Kasey Kates hosted the first meeting of the reorganized coalition on Friday May 17th. Cooley Broschart proposed arranging for Kates to meet Rushford and other staff.
- WHY Coalition Factsheet (September 23, 2016)
- Rushford mentioned her presentation with Mary Segawa during last year’s state Prevention Summit and her interest in doing so again. Cooley Broschart said she would be helping plan this year’s summit.
- Cooley Broschart said she was looking forward to the agency’s next round of cannabis packaging and labeling rulemaking “to invite stakeholders in.” Readers may recall that prevention community representatives helped instigate the last round of surprise packaging and labeling policy changes in October and were privately engaged in dialogue with the agency in parallel with industry stakeholders.
- Board Members Ollie Garrett and Russ Hauge had no questions for Cooley Broschart. As they concluded their welcome session, Rushford and Broschart confirmed they had both seen a recent cover story on Cannabidiol (CBD) in The New York Times Magazine. Cooley Broschart drew attention to the gummy bear illustration: “And it’s a gummy, note the child, you know, very child friendly graphic there.”
- The next WSLCB Board Meeting on the road was planned for Bothell on August 21st.
- Chair Rushford said the Board would be “going on the road” for the second time this year, building on their experiences in Spokane last January.
- Staff were looking to reserve facilities at the Cascadia College campus.
- During the Spokane visit, agency staff arranged meetings and attended several events including a local prevention community meeting which Rushford hoped to repeat in Bothell.
- WSLCB’s move to new headquarters was about to begin (audio – 2m).
- Executive Assistant Dustin Dickson reported that the agency move was “on track” and he planned to have the Board offices packed up by June 20th for a move on June 21st.
- The move will take place throughout June with completion targeted for July 1st.