Speaking

Conference presentations, invited lectures, panels, and exhibits — selected highlights.

I speak and teach on community-based participatory research with people who use drugs, peer support in jails, Harm Reduction, drug policy, arts-based dissemination, and lived and living expertise leadership. A curated selection appears below; the full CV (PDF) includes the complete list of talks, posters, and lectures.

If you’d like to invite me to speak, teach, keynote, or sit on a panel, please get in touch.

Recent & upcoming talks

  • March 2026 Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health Annual Conference · Atlanta, GA. “They shouldn’t have to go through that”: Improving mental health and substance use needs during jail incarceration and while on probation in Colorado. Co-presented with Dr. LeMasters.
  • February 2026 Health Systems Node Monthly Seminar · Virtual. Best Practices for Engaging People Who Use Drugs as Research Partners and Participants. Hosted by Dr. Binswanger. Co-presented with Dr. LeMasters.
  • February 2026 Invited Lecture at Naropa University · Virtual. Liberatory Harm Reduction Works. Addictions Counseling, Graduate School of Mindfulness Based Transpersonal Counseling Program Instructor: Dr. Bailey.

Selected 2025 talks, panels, & posters

  • November 2025 Drug Policy Alliance Reform Conference · Detroit, MI. “Civil Disobedience to Advance Public Health: Colorado’s Pop-Up Overdose Prevention Center for Solidarity Week.” Co-presented with Gabriella Turnbill. (poster)
  • November 2025 Drug Policy Alliance Reform Conference · Detroit, MI. “They shouldn’t have to go through that”: Improving mental health and substance use needs during jail incarceration and while on probation in Colorado. Co-presented with Dr. LeMasters. (poster)
  • October 2025 Colorado Opioid Abatement Conference · Loveland, CO. Keynote panel: “Nothing About Us Without Us” — Lived & Living Experience Voice Leading the Charge. Garcia, Medrano, Jorgensen, Fernandez, Spencer, Craft. (panelist)
  • October 2025 Rethinking Addiction Conference · Loveland, CO. “A Roadmap for Standardizing Forensic Peer Support in Colorado Jails.”
  • October 2025 Rethinking Addiction Conference · Loveland, CO. “The Power of Peer Support: A Collaborative Approach to Transforming Jail-Based Systems of Care.” (panel)
  • March 2025 Society for Applied Anthropology · Portland, OR. “Arts-Based Anthropology and Liberatory Harm Reduction: Perspectives from a University Researcher–Community Member Graphic Novel Collaboration.” (with Otañez)
Harm Reduction is Healthcare: Decreasing Risk and Stigma with People Who Use Drugs
A collage of harm reduction educational materials from the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program, including flyers on safer use practices, syringe basics, wound care, and wellness programs, beneath a header reading 'Heather Edney' and a biographical quote about her founding role in the program.
  • American Society of Addiction Medicine · Annual Conference. “Harm Reduction is Healthcare: Decreasing Risk and Stigma with People Who Use Drugs.” (workshop)
  • Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice and Health · Austin, TX. “You Can’t Incarcerate Yourself Out of the Drug Problem in America”: The Burden of Additional Criminalization of Fentanyl.
  • Health Humanities and Ethics Graduate Certificate Program (CU). Invited lecture, “What is our role? Incarceration and Reflections on Well-Being” (Instructor: Dr. Kate LeMasters).

Selected 2024 talks

  • County Sheriffs of Colorado Fall Conference · Broomfield, CO. “Advancing Peer Support in Colorado County Jails.”
  • Drug Policy Alliance Webinar. “Clearing the Path for Overdose Prevention Centers in the United States.”
  • Conference for Interdisciplinary Drug and Alcohol Research · UCCS. “Qualitative Research and Creative Community Engagement” (workshop, with Hagerman, Conzelman, Otañez).

Exhibits & creative dissemination

  • High Walls Exhibit · Redline Contemporary Art Center, Denver (2025). Incarceration, Mental Health, and Substance Use: A Photovoice Project.
  • ACT [Active Collective Trauma] Summit 2025 · Aurora, CO. “Zine-making: Art as a Form of Resistance and Healing” (workshop, with Otañez and Baranauskas).
  • 13th National Harm Reduction Conference · San Juan, PR (2022). “Visualizing Harm Reduction, Stigma Reduction and Overdose Prevention: A Video Storytelling Workshop” (with Otañez and Guerrero).