Lab 01 · Youth Substance Use

USEF Valley Youth Substance Use Alliance Lab (VYSA)

Protecting a generation of Central Valley young people from tobacco, nicotine and other substance use, in their own language and in their own communities.

Our mission

This lab exists to keep young people in our communities away from tobacco, nicotine and other addictive substances, and to stand beside the ones already caught by them.

Prevention designed elsewhere and delivered in English does not reach the young people we serve. So we work with families, schools and community leaders to build prevention and recovery support that actually fits the households it is meant for, and to make these young people visible in the research that shapes national policy.

It is a young lab, established in 2026 alongside the Center, and it is growing quickly.

Our team

The researchers behind this lab

Our partners

Academic partners

The investigators, clinicians and institutions we do this work with.

Lisa Henriksen, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Research) · Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine

Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD

Founder and Director, Stanford REACH Lab · Division of Adolescent Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

The alliance this lab convenedValley Youth Substance Use Alliance (VYSA)Our community alliance on youth substance use. Twelve sectors of the Central Valley at one table, from schools and clinics to employers, parents and young people themselves.See the alliance →

VYSA Student Outreach Library

The VYSA Student Outreach Library features accessible, community-centered educational resources created by student contributors at USEF. Materials are designed for online sharing, community events, and informed conversations.

Your Skin, Your Smile, Your Hair: How Nicotine Affects ThemEnglishTaleen Alkhayyat, Biochemistry student at CSU Fresno

Feeling the Urge to Smoke or Vape?EnglishKhadijah Chaudhry, Clovis North High School

VYSA welcomes student-led projects that make trusted health information more accessible to the communities we serve.

Our work

What we are working on

Understanding substance use in our communities

Learning directly from young people and their parents what tobacco, vaping and other substance use look like inside our communities, in the languages families actually speak at home, rather than inferring it from research designed for someone else.

Prevention built with the community

Working with families, schools and community leaders to shape prevention that fits the households it is meant for, and that a young person will actually listen to.

Helping young people stop, in their own language

Bringing quitting and recovery support to young people and their caregivers in the language spoken at home, so that help is something a whole family can take part in.

Making our young people visible in the evidence

Our communities are largely absent from state and national health data. This lab works to change that, so the research that shapes policy actually describes the young people we serve.

Work with this lab

Get in touch

Funders

If protecting young people from tobacco, nicotine and other substance use is something you fund, we would be glad to show you what this lab is building and who it reaches.

Academic partners

We welcome investigators and clinicians in tobacco control, addiction medicine and adolescent health who want to work with communities that research rarely reaches.

Student researchers

Join this lab and take on real research alongside our team. No prior research experience is required.

Apply to join this lab

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