Vilmarie Fraguada Narloch is the Director of Drug Education for Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). Vilmarie earned her M.A. in Counseling and Psychological Services from Saint. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology. During her time at Roosevelt, she was a graduate research assistant with Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy. Her work at ICDP included research support, report co-authorship and event planning and coordination.

Vilmarie’s interests in drug education, access to treatment, and harm reduction policy and practice have led her to numerous projects, including the provision of counseling and harm reduction services to students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and DePaul University, serving as a member of the Chicago Consortium on College Alcohol Harm Reduction, a predoctoral internship in the Adult Behavioral Services department in a local public health department, and a postdoctoral fellowship in a small private agency, where she provided therapy for individuals, couples, families, and groups in addition to supervising interns.

Additionally, Vilmarie has been an adjunct instructor teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and substance use disorder treatment. She has dedicated her studies and clinical work to advance Harm Reduction as the standard of practice for substance use disorders. In doing so, she has sought opportunities to educate others in her field about harm reduction, including her students. Vilmarie’s dissertation, titled, “What Youth Want: Developing a Drug Education Curriculum Based on Youth Guidance and Evidence-Based Principles,” inspired her to continue to advocate for effective drug education on a professional level, which led to her current position at SSDP.

After speaking to Academy students in the morning, Vilmarie will join parents at the Parents Association meeting for a discussion on harm reduction, laws surrounding marijuana legalization (particularly for minors), and an awareness of legal versus black market marijuana. The Parents Association meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. and the discussion on marijuana will begin at 6:45 p.m..= Please RSVP below to reserve your spot!