Laura Towvim

Ms. Towvim is the Deputy Director of the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention and has extensive experience in project development, direction, and administration. Before joining the National Center in 2006, she directed the Social Norms Marketing Research Project, a 32-site study of social norms marketing. As director, she trained grantees in program planning, development, and implementation; developed guidebooks and toolkits; managed technical assistance and monitoring; and developed systems for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on program implementation. Ms. Towvim also directed EDC’s College Tobacco Prevention Initiative (CTPI), which assisted IHEs in planning, implementing, and evaluating efforts to reduce tobacco use among college students and conducted research to guide these efforts. Ms. Towvim joined EDC in 1998 after completing a Master's Degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Behavior where she focused on youth risk-behaviors and program design and evaluation. Laura has also worked as a counselor and educator in several settings, including a woman's health clinic and a smoking cessation program.