Meet The Team

Jenny Armbruster holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and has been employed with the agency since 2007, with over 19 years working in social services. As the Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Armbruster oversees PreventEd’s Counseling Program, Community Prevention, and Education efforts. In addition to these areas, Jenny also provides supervision for PreventEd’s opioid education and naloxone program.

She is a Certified Reciprocal Prevention Specialist, Licensed Professional Counselor,

and Youth Mental Health First Aid facilitator.

In her personal life, Jenny enjoys spending time with her kids and family traveling and being outdoors.

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Kristin Bengtson is the Associate Director of Community Strategy at PreventEd.  She graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with Minors in Sociology and Linguistics.  For the past ten years, she has worked with community coalitions in the Greater St. Louis Area addressing substance use prevention priorities at the local level.  She is especially passionate about youth leadership development and youth advocacy, serving as the Co-Director for PreventEd’s Teen Institute.

In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her fiancé and cat, exploring restaurants in St. Louis, and playing soccer. 

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Jessica Howard is a Missouri Advanced Prevention Specialist with over 20 years of prevention programming experience. Jessica currently serves as the Substance Use Prevention Program Director for FCC Behavioral Health of Kennett, MO. 

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Jessica is a wife and mother of two fabulous daughters who are also professionals in the field of prevention.

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In her free time, Jessica enjoys time at the lake and spending time with friends and family.

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Allison Austill is  passionate about her position as the Director of Prevention and Community Education. She works to educate youth and families on the dangers of substance use and to provide them with the tools and resources they need to make healthy choices by promoting and implementing evidence-based prevention strategies. Being from Southeast Missouri, Allison has a deep understanding of the challenges facing Missouri communities and has developed a strong network of partnerships with coalitions, schools, and community stakeholders.

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In her free time, Allison enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter as well as reading as many books as she can.

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Dr. Susan Bradford's experience includes working with both state and local organizations to improve the data infrastructure for increasing behavioral health across the state. She has been involved with several large scale evaluations and led the team which analyzed and reported the most current Missouri Student Survey results.

Dr. Bradford is the current Project Director for the Partnership for Success project. In these positions she has worked to help Missouri stakeholders implement data driven decision making.

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She is recently married and enjoying settling into her new house with her husband and 3 kitties. In her free time she loves to travel. She also fosters cats and kittens for the APA of St. Louis.

Ann Jansen is from Southern Illinois, but now works in Southeast Missouri. She has been in prevention for 15 years. Her first 5 years of youth substance misuse prevention were in Illinois. Ann has been employed at the Southeast Prevention Resource Center (PRC) for the last 10 years. The PRC is located at Southeast Missouri State University located in Cape Girardeau.

Ann loves working within the 6 counties, 9 state registered coalitions, and youth that the PRC serves. Ann possesses the Certified Reciprocal Prevention Specialist (CRPS) credential. She is also certified to facilitate a few different curriculums.

Rikki Barton has a passion for communicating essential messages to move individuals and communities onward in their goals. She is the Founder/Lead Consultant of Onward Consulting, holds the Missouri Advanced Prevention Specialist certification, and international IC&RC certification. She has 13 years of prevention field experience and currently serves as a consultant to assist organizations, coalitions, and state/federal agencies in the areas of substance use prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health promotion. She has extensive experience working with community coalitions, providing training, grant writing, managing funding sources, and leading a team of preventionists. In her free time, she loves to be active in nature with her dog and jumps at a chance for a fun game night.  

Laura Bruce is the Manager of Prevention at Beacon Mental Health Services, Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri.  She holds both the Missouri Advanced and Certified Reciprocal Prevention Specialist credentials and has spent the past decade+ working with coalitions to reduce substance use, promote mental health, and build resilience in local youth. In her role at Tri-County, she loves thinking up new ideas, working alongside amazing staff and partners, and strategizing for long-term change. Laura is passionate about protecting the health and safety of the next generation and is excited to help everyone join in this mission. In her free time, Laura enjoys Crossfit, finding fun with her husband and kids, crossword puzzles and cheering on Kansas City sports.  

Edward Mears has worked for Preferred Family Healthcare (PFH) for over 15 years. He worked for many years in behavioral health before becoming a Prevention Specialist for the Prevention Department. Mears states, “Working in the prevention field has filled me with a great sense of pride. As a department that is here to serve our communities, one of our biggest goals is to save lives. Every youth that hears our message and stays away from drugs is a potential life saved. We have a great team here at PFH Prevention that wants to be a positive light in an otherwise dark world. I am thankful that Prevention has allowed me to make an impact in every area of my life.” Outside of work, Mears has two sons and a wife of 15 years. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his children, fishing, and being outdoors.