Rethink Tobacco Indiana (formerly Bringing Indiana Along), is a statewide initiative aimed at bringing tobacco awareness to the field of behavioral health. Our highly skilled team of trained tobacco treatment specialists are dedicated to helping behavioral health organizations to integrate evidence-based tobacco treatment strategies into their continuum of care.
About Rethink Tobacco Indiana
Leadership
Debi (Hudson) Buckles
BS, RRT, NCTTP Program Director
Debi is the Tobacco Control Lead of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and has received her Bachelor of Science degree in Respiratory Therapy, the National Certificate in Tobacco Treatment Practice, is a certified-UMass TTS trainer and serves on a couple of national organizations including the Council for Tobacco Treatment Training Programs and the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence. In addition, since 2008, Ms. Buckles has been the Project Director of “Rethink Tobacco Indiana” project, focused on tobacco cessation systems change in mental health & substance abuse centers across Indiana. During Debi’s more than 25 years in the field of tobacco treatment she has coordinated and developed training programs for health care professionals and lay persons across Indiana, worked on multiple research efforts, provided technical assistance to many different types of healthcare organizations and is recognized as a leader in the state on tobacco control efforts.
Phone: 317-278-3736
E-mail: dhudson@iupui.edu
Karen S. Hudmon
DrPH, MS, RPh, TTS Principal Investigator
Dr. Hudmon serves as the Principal Investigator for the state grant that funds the work of Rethink Tobacco Indiana. She is a Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy and Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy. Dr. Hudmon is a licensed pharmacist with a Doctorate in Public Health and nearly 30 years of tobacco research experience and has personally provided tobacco cessation training to more than 20,000 health professionals (students and licensed clinicians). She has also provided educational sessions for prescribers of numerous community mental health centers to encourage them to view tobacco dependence within their scope of practice as part of her work with Rethink Tobacco Indiana.
Dr. Hudmon has co-led the Indiana-based initiative to advance legislation enabling pharmacists to prescribe all smoking cessation medications under a statewide protocol that she authored. Furthermore, she was one of the original authors of the Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation training program, which has been in existence since 1999 and is used globally to train students and licensed clinicians to apply evidence-based approaches for helping patients quit. Currently, Dr. Hudmon’s research is funded by the NIH and the Indiana State Department of Health. In addition, she is a trained tobacco treatment specialist (TTS) and a Certified-UMass TTS Trainer.
Email: khudmon@purdue.edu
