Frank J. Chaloupka, PhD, ImpactTeen Co-Director
Brian R. Flay, DPhil, ImpacTeen Co-Director
Sandy J. Slater, PhD, ImpacTeen Deputy Director

ImpacTeen is an interdisciplinary partnership of nationally recognized health experts with specialties in such areas as economics, etiology, epidemiology, law, political science, public policy, psychology, and sociology. The project, part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Bridging the Gap: Research Informing Practice and Policy for Healthy Youth Behavior, focuses on economic, environmental, and policy influences on youth substance use, obesity and physical activity.

ImpacTeen is co-directed by economist Frank J. Chaloupka, PhD, and prevention researcher Brian R. Flay, DPhil, at the University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Health Research and Policy.

FRANK J. CHALOUPKA, PhD (UIC)
ImpacTeen Co-Director
Telephone: 312.413.2287
Email: fjc@uic.edu
Web: http://www.uic.edu/~fjc

Dr. Chaloupka is a professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Business Administration. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research Health Economics Program. He received his doctorate in economics from the City University of New York Graduate School in 1988.Dr. Chaloupka's research focuses on the economic analysis of substance use and abuse; primarily among youth and young adults. He has conducted extensive research on the effects of prices and substance control policies on the demands for tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs, and on related outcomes. Dr. Chaloupka has published over 25 articles in such journals as the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Journal of Health Economics, Economic Inquiry, Eastern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Journal, and Contemporary Economic Policy; and numerous book chapters and working papers.

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BRIAN R. FLAY, DPhil (UIC)
Email: bflay@uic.edu

Brian Flay, DPhil, is a professor of Public Health at Oregon State University. He was previously Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Flay received his doctorate from Waikato University in New Zealand in 1976. His research focuses on understanding and preventing the adoption of unsafe behaviors. He is currently involved in two projects (in Chicago and Hawaii elementary schools) to evaluate the Positive Action program, a comprehensive character education and prevention program designed to prevent negative and unhealthy behaviors (including substance use), increase positive behaviors, and improve academic achievement. These studies are funded by NIDA and the US Department of Education.

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SANDY SLATER, PhD (UIC)
ImpacTeen Deputy Director
Telephone: 312.413.0475
Email: sslater@uic.edu
Web: http://www.uic.edu/~sslater

Sandy Slater, PhD, Senior Research Specialist at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), is a health policy analyst whose research focuses on the impact of state and local policies, and other environmental factors on health behavior. Since joining UIC, Dr. Slater has examined state and local policies, socioeconomic, geographic and store type variation in tobacco and alcohol retail marketing strategies and their association to youth smoking and drinking attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. More recently, Dr. Slater is investigating the impact of socioeconomic and other environmental factors on physical activity and obesity. Specifically, she conducts research aimed at understanding factors in the environment that provide opportunities, and those that constrain, the ability for individuals to be physically active. Her research has included examining the relationship between the availability of outdoor physical activity-related settings and commercial physical activity-related outlets on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, as well as on youth physical activity behavior and overweight. Her National Institutes of Health-funded research examines the importance of school and community physical activity settings and opportunities on youth physical activity levels, overweight and obesity. She also developed a guide that inventories existing obesity-related data sources, identifies what factors are currently being measured, and what is missing from existing sources to determine what measures should be developed for future research.

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