Timothy G. Lena, MSW
Student Assistance Program Coordinator

Mr. Lena has 19 years of experience in the substance abuse prevention and intervention field.  He received his BA from UNH in 1983 with a dual major in Psychology and Social work.  After receiving his Master’s in Social Work from Boston College in 1988, he started working as the Student Assistance Program Coordinator for the Salem School District.  During his 9 years at Salem, he was responsible for developing a very effective “Core Team” model for Middle and High School, which intervened on hundreds of families and linked them with appropriate treatment. He was also responsible for building an “Adventure Based Education Curriculum” with the middle school guidance department and secured funding to build a Ropes Course for the district.  During this time Mr. Lena also served as a regional and national trainer/consultant for the Northeast Regional Center for Drug Free Schools and Communities, and the National Volunteer Training Center.

In 1997, Mr. Lena began working for the Timberlane Regional School District as the Student Assistance Program Coordinator. In this capacity he has also serves as the Chairman for the Sanborn/Timberlane Safe and Drug Free Community Coalition.  He has also served as Co-President of the NH Association of Student Assistance Professionals, and Timberlane’s SAP has been held up as a model program by the Department of Education.   In addition to the regular screening and interventions he conducts with students and their families, he was responsible for securing funds to bring the Life Skills Training Curriculum to the Middle School.   The three year grant from OJJDP was extended for five years, based on what a model program Timberlane had developed. This universal strategy, along with other efforts, appears to be responsible for dramatic improvements in lowering risk behaviors as was measured by 2001 and 2003 Local YRBS middle school data.  Mr. Lena is the 2005 recipient of the Dr. Tom Fox Scholarship, for “Excellence and exemplary contributions to the delivery of alcohol and other drug prevention services in New Hampshire”.

Mr. Lena has also been an Advisor to the Timberlane Peer Outreach and Peer Mediation Programs.  The group collaborated with SADD and STOP to deliver several school wide prevention activities including; the AIDS Quilt, Legacy of Hope, and Fatal Reality.

Mr. Lena also secured two rounds of funds from the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention, Intervention and Recovery to build an adventure based education curriculum and indoor ropes course for the middle school along with other prevention activities district wide.  These funds were also used to improve “access” to treatment by bringing treatment providers into the high school. These funds also went to help host a training on Prime For Life, Under 21  for 30 participants from around State.

Mr. Lena lives in Kittery Maine with his wife and three children. He runs a small commercial diving business in the summer, and is also a talented guitarist and vocalist.