by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Center for Teaching Excellence and the Intercultural Center are holding a Critical Issues Panel on the Opioid Crisis this week.
“The Opioid Crisis” is from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. March 22 in Room 2325 on the KCKCC Main Campus, 7250 State Ave. The event is free and all students, faculty and staff as well as community members are welcomed to attend. Faculty planning to bring a class should contact the CTE at [email protected]. The panel is sponsored by the Critical Issues Committee, the CTE and the KCKCC Intercultural Center.
The panel will feature three individuals who will speak on the Opioid Crisis:
• Kevin Steele, coordinator of KCKCC’s Criminal Justice Program
• Scott Wheeler, program director for Behavioral Health Group
• Susan Whitmore, president and CEO of First Call, an Alcohol-Drug Prevention and Recovery program
Michael James, coordinator of KCKCC’s Addiction Counseling Program will serve as the panel’s facilitator.
“I hope that people will gain an understanding of the complexity of the topic,” said Dr. Jelena Ozegovic, faculty director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. “This was why the committee felt it was important to recruit panel members that can represent multiple perspectives. Additionally, there will be two presenters from the community who will be able to provide information about local resources.”
This will be the CTE’s first presentation focusing on the Opioid Crisis in the United States. The second, an academic Symposium titled “Addiction and the Opiate Crisis,” will be from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. April 10 in Room 2325. James will lead an academically informed discussion of the cycle of addiction with specific focus on the opiate/opioid epidemic.
“The difference between the Academic Symposium and the Critical Issues panel is that the Symposium is a more in depth presentation, grounded in academic research, about the topic,” Ozegovic said. “The Critical Issues Panel is a more informal event in that panel members are asked questions by the facilitator, and they will each be given an opportunity to answer. Panel members represent a variety of disciplines and will discuss the topic as it relates to their area of expertise. Thus, we have a perspective from criminal justice, the treatment community and a medical perspective.”