A High School Senior Fighting the Substance Misuse Crisis: Meet Heather

This month, I’m proud to recognize Heather McGlauflin of New Boston, New Hampshire as the Granite Stater of the Month for her remarkable work to help prevent substance misuse. Now a high school senior, Heather has worked with a number of organizations since her sophomore year to help prevent substance misuse among her peers and to fight for young people to have a seat at the table in efforts to combat this devastating epidemic.

Heather’s advocacy on this issue began after a guidance counselor encouraged her to attend a weekend training with CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America). At the end of the weekend, Heather participated on a panel of students proposing solutions to government officials and advocates on how to strengthen the response to this crisis that was broadcast live on New Hampshire’s WMUR.

The CADCA training inspired Heather’s continued activism, and in the years since she has gotten involved in a variety of initiatives such as training younger students on over-the-counter medication safety, presenting on the importance of youth advocacy to DEA agents from across New England and the country, and participating in a public service announcement training with the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation. As a result of her work with the Mark Wahlberg foundation, Heather created several PSA’s which were selected for further production and participated in an Emmy-winning PSA with WMUR. Heather also helped found Empower Youth 603 — a youth coalition focused on substance misuse in New Hampshire — and she recently presented at CADCA’s national conference in Washington, D.C., where I met Heather and heard more about her work.

Heather says she is driven by the stories of her friends and peers, too many of whom have been impacted by New Hampshire’s devastating opioid crisis. She believes that it is critical to stop substance misuse before it happens and that the best messenger for young people is often someone their own age.

For her continued efforts in preventing substance misuse, I’m proud to recognize Heather McGlauflin as February’s Granite Stater of the Month.

If you’d like to nominate a New Hampshire citizen as the Granite Stater of the Month, visit my website here.