Vaping: Know the Truth – Empowering Students with the Facts on E-cigarettes & Tools to Quit
Join Truth Initiative for a virtual discussion about how educators can empower students with the facts on the health risks of e-cigarettes and nicotine use, and help those who are already vaping to quit.
This Truth Initiative Impact Series will spotlight a free, national youth vaping prevention curriculum called Vaping: Know the truth available to schools nationwide to help combat the youth e-cigarette epidemic. Truth Initiative and Kaiser Permanente – in collaboration with the American Heart Association – developed this highly-successful and engaging set of modules for high school and middle school students as part of Truth Initiative’s nationally recognized truth campaign.
Since the launch of the curriculum in November 2020 – which is available through leading social impact education innovator, EVERFI – more than 227,000 young people have actively engaged in the digital course. In addition to encouraging students to live vape-free lives, this self-led, interactive curriculum offers resources to help young people who are currently using e-cigarettes to quit through truth’s first-of-its-kind free text message youth quit vaping program called This is Quitting, which has enrolled nearly 400,000 youth and young adults to date. A randomized clinical trial found that young adults aged 18-24 who used This is Quitting had nearly 40% higher odds of quitting compared to a control group.
Moderated by Anya Kamenetz, NPR’s education correspondent, this Impact Series will illustrate how Vaping: Know the truth equips educators to fight the vaping epidemic in support of their students’ mental health and wellbeing, with an entire module focused on self-care and mental health. Accessible to schools and the public and available through EVERFI, the leading social impact education innovator, Vaping: Know the truth was created with youth input and features lessons tailored to middle and high school students. Attendees will glean teacher insights around using the curriculum in the classroom and hear from students who have used the digital course.
This conversation comes at a critical moment, as the FDA has yet to issue much-needed regulation on the majority of e-cigarette products that make up 75% of the market, including the top brands among youth, such as JUUL, Puff Bar and Vuse Alto. Flavors, including menthol, are still a major driver of e-cigarette popularity among adolescents, with 8 in 10 using flavored e-cigarettes as of 2020, according to CDC data.
Moderator:
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Anya Kamenetz Anya Kamenetz is an education correspondent at NPR. She joined NPR in 2014, working as part of a new initiative to coordinate on-air and online coverage of learning. Since then the NPR Ed team has won a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for Innovation, and a 2015 National Award for Education Reporting. Kamenetz is the author of several books. Her next book is The Stolen Year; How COVID Changed Children's Lives, And Where We Go Now – a narrative journalism project forthcoming in 2022. Her previous books touched on screen time, student loans, innovations to address cost, quality, and access in higher education, and issues of assessment and excellence. Kamenetz covered technology, innovation, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship for five years as a staff writer for Fast Company magazine. She's contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine and Slate, and appeared in documentaries shown on PBS and CNN. |
Speakers:
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Robin Koval Robin Koval is CEO and President of Truth Initiative®, the national public health organization dedicated to achieving a culture where all young people reject smoking, vaping and nicotine. An acclaimed leader in the advertising and marketing world, and New York Times best-selling author, Koval joined Truth Initiative in 2013. Under Koval’s leadership, truth has prevented millions of young people from becoming smokers, including over 2.5 million between 2015 and 2018 alone. She’s led the successful re-launch of the award-winning and lifesaving truth youth tobacco prevention campaign and expanded the organization’s world-class research, public education, youth activism and digital cessation programs to also combat the nation’s youth e-cigarette epidemic. |
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David Grossman David Grossman, MD, MPH, is interim senior vice president of social and community health for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. & Hospitals where he leads Kaiser Permanente’s social health strategy in partnership with the Permanente Medical Groups. Dr. Grossman leads efforts to advance a social health practice that connects members with social services, programs, and resources to alleviate food insecurity, social isolation and key social needs. He previously served as senior associate medical director for community health and external relations for Kaiser Permanente Washington. He was national senior medical director for community health for Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Grossman received his undergraduate degree in chemistry at UC Berkeley and medical degree at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. |
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Kim-Jamy Nguyen Kim-Jamy is EVERFI’s Director of Texas District Partnerships and works closely with Texas’ largest school districts to build thoughtful partnerships and educate the Whole Child. Previously, Kim-Jamy taught abroad through Taiwan’s Ministry of Education and worked with college access and leadership development nonprofits such as The Posse Foundation. Following a fellowship at the Wharton School, she landed in the field of philanthropy working as a student researcher and summer associate with the Lipman Family Prize and the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change project. Her work life and personal life often intersect because of her passion for diversity and inclusion, social justice and social impact. She received a B.A. from University of Texas in Austin and a M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Joshua Grant Joshua Grant serves as the content coordinator for health and physical education at the West Virginia Department of Education. In this role, Joshua supports all districts in West Virginia where dozens of schools and thousands of students are already using the Vaping: Know the truth curriculum. Prior to joining the West Virginia Department of Education, Joshua served as an elementary school and middle school assistant principal. Prior to serving as an administrator, he served as a high school health education teacher. He also served as an elementary school and high school physical education teacher. Joshua has a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from Southern Connecticut State University and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Concord University. |
Truth Initiative Impact Series
The Truth Initiative Impact Series is a robust, recurring event that brings together key stakeholders and experts to engage in thought-provoking conversations about ways we can innovate and inspire action to achieve a culture where young people reject smoking, vaping, and nicotine. The goal of this thought leadership series is to convene diverse partners in tobacco control and other public health organizations, parents, teachers, and policy makers, who can benefit from Truth Initiative’s work.
In case you missed it, watch previous Impact Series events including: “Unvaping America’s Youth,” “Not Buying It: The Tobacco Industry’s Rebrand,” and “Thrive: A Youth Mental-Health Summit.”