To illustrate her point, Wenger recounts a story about a series of trainings she conducted for Michigan judges on dealing with DWI cases. One particular judge refused to deal sternly with first-time DWI offenders: "He felt that they were responsible citizens who had simply made a mistake," Wenger recalled.

Since the judge didn't believe that the offenders who appeared before him had serious problems with alcohol, Wenger convinced him to assess the individuals involved in DWI cases. It turned out that 85 percent of first-offenders were found to be problem drinkers, but that fact alone was not what swayed the judge. The clincher was when Wenger made the connection between chronic drinking and recidivism, which impacted the judge by clogging his calendar; those who received treatment tended not show up again in the judge's courtroom. The jurist's attitude toward DWI offenders changed from laissez-faire to treatment-oriented.

Wenger, who was recently honored with the 2000 Senator Harold Hughes Award for her work in translating research to practice by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), tells Join Together that the key to her success has been "to take solid, documented information and demonstrate ... how acting on that benefits THEIR mission, not my mission," whether she is dealing with a judge, a school board, clergy or others in the community or government. When speaking with a local pastor, for example, Wenger stresses that their ecumenical mission cannot succeed with addressing alcohol. "I give them information out of the research in a way that they can hear it," she says.

The Hughes award honors a nonresearcher who has used alcohol research findings to foster treatment or prevention and build bridges between the research, prevention, treatment and policy making communities. It is named after the late Iowa senator, who was one of the first members of Congress to publicly discuss his alcoholism and helped found NIAAA.

A 1998 Join Together Fellow, Wenger consults with various prevention and treatment groups in Michigan and nationally and is an adjunct assistant professor in the addiction studies department at the University of Detroit at Mercy, in addition to her work at NACoA. "She has been very effective in Detroit, working to put prevention programs in place and working effectively with folks in the criminal justice system, as well as operating nationally on behalf of children of alcoholics," said Bob Downing, public policy director at Join Together. Downing said Wenger's work in pulling together a White House meeting on children of alcoholics was especially impressive, given the potentially controversial subject matter. "She used the science to bulletproof the topic," he said.

Wenger said she is grateful for NIAAA's acknowledgement of her work and to the agency itself "for producing information that I can translate for training and advocacy efforts in schools, courts and elsewhere, and for arguments that I can use to improve protection for kids."

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