Alcohol Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement

ADAPTE is a non-profit affiliate of SAI

About Us

Our Consultants

Elizabeth Mattfeld (Beth)

Elizabeth Mattfeld, M.S., in Community Psychology, has nearly twenty years of experience in the public health and prevention fields. She has coursework, training, and experience in statistics, research methodology, and psychological theory.

Ms. Mattfeld's strength lies in program evaluation and systems coordination. Her experience includes the tracking and analysis of school-based alcohol and substance abuse programs implemented using safe and drug free schools funding in the State of New York. She has developed and implemented professional development training, curricula, media and programmatic interventions in issues related to public health with a specific focus on alcohol and substance abuse.

Ms. Mattfeld has worked with communities to implement and assess a logic model. She provided technical assistance in these areas: 1) as they collect and analyze local data using locally developed survey instruments, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Healthy Behaviors of School Children, Monitoring the Future, and the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse 2) as they prioritize root causes and develop target performance measures 3) as the programmatic intervention is designed and implemented in accordance with research and best practice and 4) with program process and outcome evaluation.

Ms. Mattfeld has developed training materials focused on alcohol law enforcement, specifically the preparation of local officers to enforce alcohol laws and regulations with a goal of increased enforcement and reduced alcohol-related harm.

Kimberly J. Dalferes

Ms. Dalferes has been involved in public policy and systems reform, especially in the juvenile and criminal justice fields, for over twenty years. Currently, she is a Principal Partner with Dalferes Enterprises, Inc., a project management and public policy consulting firm that she owns with her husband, Greg. Kim's passion for public service includes experience in juvenile and criminal justice planning, systems reform, crime prevention, government relations, resource development, grant writing and management, coalition building, and addressing girls and delinquency. Her publications include Mobilizing the Nation to Prevent Crime, Violence and Drug Abuse (CPCA annual report, NCPC, 2005 and 2006), Prevention Can Be a Priority in the Midst of Fiscal Calamity (Topics in Crime Prevention series, NCPC, September 2003) and What About Girls? (with Ellen Shields-Fletcher, OJJDP Fact Sheet #84, September 1998).

Ms. Dalferes began her career while in college when Florida Governor Bob Graham appointed her to Florida's Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) State Advisory Group (SAG). Kim served as a member of the SAG while in graduate school at Florida State University where she earned her Masters degree in Criminology in 1987. For six years she served as the Juvenile Justice Specialist for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice where she was responsible for oversight and implementation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, grants administration program/service development, legislative liaison, and training and technical assistance. While in Tallahassee, Kim also worked as a criminology adjunct professor at Tallahassee Community College.

In 1995, Ms. Dalferes left the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice to travel to Washington, DC and joined the State Relations and Assistance Division (SRAD) of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Kim worked as the Region Chief for SRAD's Midwest and Northeast regions until her promotion to Director of OJJDP's Concentration of Federal Efforts (CFE) Program. As the Director of the CFE Program, Kim facilitated the coordination of juvenile justice activities across Federal agencies. In this capacity she also directed the work of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, an eighteen member Council chaired by the Attorney General and consisting of representatives from nine Federal agencies and nine practitioner members.

In 2001 Ms. Dalferes was hired by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) to serve as the Director of the Embedding Prevention in State Policy and Practice initiative, was appointed national director of the Crime Prevention Coalition of America (CPCA) in January 2004, and became managing director of NCPC's Constituency Services division in March 2006. Kim's work as Managing Director included her continuing to serve as the CPCA National Director and to supervise staff with responsibilities for CPCA, and to also manage NCPC's government relations, training, and conferencing (including the National Conference on Preventing Crime, the premiere national crime prevention conference event). Kim's duties included budget and contractual negotiations, congressional and federal agency activities (including appropriations requests), federal legislation tracking, policy review, and representing NCPC for various external relationships. Examples include serving on the Board of Directors for National Safe Place® and as the team lead for NCPC's National Watch Groups Summit, where she was responsible for coordinating the team of federal agencies, non-profits, and other organizations that developed and executed the National Watch Groups Summit (conducted in May 2007 in partnership with US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security).

Jessica Drake

Mrs. Drake has worked in the non-profit sector for the last 6 years. She has experience in crisis counseling and helping patients with Alzheimer's, mental illness and substance abuse problems. She also retains skills in healthcare, billing and research. Over the last several years she has worked in early childhood education helping young children grow and providing them with a healthy stable environment. She most recently began work for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in fundraising and recruitment for their yearly Pennies for Patients campaign and has been lending her support to SAI in varying research projects. Mrs. Drake sits on the advisory board for Sister to Sister and possesses a Maryland State Crisis Counseling Certificate.

Amy E. Prenda

Amy Prenda, J.D., brings over 15 years of government relations and lobbying experience with a strong and diverse background in legislative affairs, policy development and analysis, research and writing, strategic planning, and group facilitation. Prior to joining the government relations firm of Cutshall & Nowka, Amy served as Research Manager with the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center where she administered and performed research and policy analysis for the Nebraska State Bar Association's Judicial Structure and Administration Task Force. She has also served as Director of Legal Research and Analysis for the government relations of Kissel/E&S Associates, Legal Counsel for the Nebraska Legislature's Appropriations Committee and Judiciary Committee, Executive Director of the Lancaster County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Program, and Board President of the Nebraska CASA Association. The National CASA Association recognized Ms. Prenda in 2006 as the CASA Board Member of the Year. Amy also serves as the Nebraska Sheriffs' Association Executive Director and is currently serving as the Board President for the Family Violence Council.

Amy is also President of A Prenda Company, a project management and public policy consulting firm that she owns. Amy's passion for coalition building and system reform has allowed her through her company to work with the following organizations:

Amy earned her B.A. in English from Creighton University and her J.D. from Creighton University School of Law. Amy has been an active member of the Nebraska State Bar Association since 1994. She has her mediation certification through the Nebraska Office of Dispute Resolution and a group facilitation certification through Bellevue University.

Andrew D. Kessler

Andrew D. Kessler has over fifteen years experience in public policy, including work on Capitol Hill and at national non-profit associations. In addition to working on policy, he has organized and managed grassroots campaign on the local, state, and national levels. For the last decade he has specialized in behavioral health policy. In 2007, he founded Slingshot Solutions LLC, a consulting firm that provides policy and communications services to state and national associations. He was worked closely with several federal agencies, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Andrew received his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1993. In 1999, he received his Juris Doctor from American University, where as a 3L he worked in the legal clinic that is ranked second in the entire nation. He was named the outstanding student in the civil practice clinic amongst third year students. While at American, he was a two-time moot court finalist, and was selected to represent the university in the prestigious William B. Spong Constitutional Law national moot court competition.

He is a frequent contributor to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Weekly, and the online journal Recovery View. He serves on the board of both the Friends of SAMHSA, and the Friends of NIDA.