Join us in honoring our exceptional 2024 Awardees—Lolita Smith-Moore, Dr. Asari Offiong, and Mandie Fleming—for their remarkable contributions and unwavering dedication young people.
October 31, 2024
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ach year, Healthy Teen Network recognizes individuals and organizations for their achievements in adolescent sexual and reproductive health. With these awards, we celebrate the essential, amazing work they do every day, providing honest, affirming care and education, and empowering the next generation to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
We’re so excited to announce this year’s awardees.
*drum roll*
Young Parent Achievement Award
We are thrilled to introduce Lolita Smith-Moore as the recipient of the 2024 Healthy Teen Network Young Parent Achievement Award.
From day one, when Healthy Teen Network was founded in 1979 as the National Organization for Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting (NOAPP), we have not only affirmed but often been one of the few national organizations working to ensure young families’ access to the supports and services they need to thrive. We do this because being inclusive of and affirming young people who are pregnant or parenting ensures equity for all youth.
With the Healthy Teen Network Young Parent Achievement Award, we recognize someone who has met the challenges of early parenting, has achieved extraordinary personal and/or professional success, and demonstrates phenomenal leadership. The Young Parent Achievement Award not only recognizes young parents, it celebrates them and their accomplishments, for themselves, and for their families.
Lolita Smith-Moore’s journey is a testament to resilience and dedication. After becoming a parent at 15 and experiencing the heartbreak of losing her second son, she welcomed her third son in 2000. Later, she had a daughter, who was diagnosed with autism. Despite these challenges, Lolita pursued her education, earning her GED, attending community college, transferring to East Carolina University to complete her degree in Public Health Studies, and ultimately earning a master’s in health education.
Currently working toward becoming a clinical mental health counselor, Lolita has dedicated her career to supporting adolescents and young parents. She played a pivotal role in revitalizing a statewide preconception health and wellness program through peer education at colleges and HBCUs and serves as an adjunct lecturer at North Carolina Central University. Additionally, she co-authored educational resources with Tanya Bass, including Unequal Partners: Teaching about Power, Consent, and Healthy Relationships and Let’s Erase Bullying.
Lolita’s incredible journey continues as a proud grandmother of three grandsons, and we celebrate her extraordinary contributions and achievements. Please join us in congratulating Lolita!
Changemaker Award
We are proud to announce that the recipient of this year’s Healthy Teen Network Changemaker Award is Dr. Asari Offiong of Child Trends!
The Healthy Teen Network Changemaker Award celebrates individuals or organizations who are unapologetically creating a world where every young person can be who they are and love who they love.
In a time of continued and escalating attacks on sexual and reproductive health rights, driven by ideology and partisan agendas, it is the changemakers who are making it happen. Through their dedication and hard work, changemakers are actualizing the vision of a world that affirms and celebrates them for who they are. Ensuring they have the agency, opportunity, and access to make decisions about their bodies, relationships, and futures (and feel good doing it!). That includes decisions about if, when, and how to parent—or not. Changemakers rebuff and replace harmful policies and practices that strip young people of their autonomy, rights, and identities, freeing them to become who they want to be.
The Changemaker Award recognizes those who champion young people’s access to inclusive, affirming, and honest sexual and reproductive health education and care
Dr. Asari Offiong’s work exemplifies changemaking. With a focus on supporting pregnant and parenting adolescents, her research explores their holistic well-being through a reproductive justice lens. Her dissertation examined how U.S. adolescents conceptualize pregnancy intentions, laying the groundwork for her postdoctoral research on how schools and prevention programs can better support these young people.
Dr. Offiong has been instrumental in developing and evaluating strengths-based programs to promote positive sexual health among Black youth. Grounded in empathy and respect for young people’s experiences, Dr. Offiong emphasizes, “Yes, I’ve been 16, but I don’t know what it’s like to be 16 today.” Rather than dictating what is right or wrong, she believes it is her responsibility to ensure that systems and structures are in place to support young people, no matter their decisions or needs.
Recognizing the limitations of a prevention-only approach to sexual and reproductive health, Dr. Offiong advocates for more inclusive services that address the full spectrum of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and well-being. Her research also highlights the need for greater involvement of adolescent young men in these conversations.
Dr. Offiong’s work has directly informed the implementation of Maryland’s Bill HB0401, passed in 2021, which requires public schools to create policies that support pregnant and parenting students. This legislation ensures access to private lactation spaces, refrigerators to store breast milk, and excused absences for prenatal, postnatal, and child-related medical visits, ensuring these young people have the support they need to succeed.
We celebrate Dr. Asari Offiong for her tireless efforts in championing the rights and well-being of young people.
Visionary Award
Please join us in congratulating 2024 Healthy Teen Network Visionary Award recipient, Mandie Fleming, manager of Flathead Family Planning in Kalispell, Montana.
The Healthy Teen Network Visionary Award honors forward-thinking, insightful, and proactive individuals or organizations committed to innovative approaches in adolescent sexual and reproductive health education and care.
Visionaries dream of the endless possibilities in education, health care, technology, and policy, ensuring that what young people learn, experience, and discover about sexuality is relevant, timely, and inspiring.
Anticipating the needs of the ever-changing lives of young people and creating holistic solutions with young people that cultivate equity, reduce health disparities, and are inclusive and affirming are at the core of the Visionary Award.
Mandie Fleming embodies these visionary qualities through her work at Flathead Family Planning. She began her career as a health educator, driven by her passion for sex education and facilitating evidence-based programs. With her leadership, the clinic’s staff is now well-trained to provide an inclusive and supportive experience for every patient.
Mandie has also established groundbreaking services. She launched a harm reduction needle exchange program, transforming the clinic into a regional hub for Naloxone training and opioid overdose prevention. She introduced the region’s first harm reduction and sexual health vending machine, offering free and anonymous access to supplies like menstrual hygiene products, pregnancy tests, condoms, and more.
Beyond these efforts, Mandie has expanded the clinic’s services to include treatment for sexual dysfunction, semen analysis, and soon, vasectomies—ensuring that male-bodied patients also have access to comprehensive reproductive care.
Working in a deeply conservative state, often as a lone advocate, Mandie continues to push for innovative, life-saving solutions that meet the needs of her community.
We are honored to recognize Mandie Fleming for her visionary leadership and dedication to advancing sexual and reproductive health.
We will honor our 2024 Awardees at the Shining Stars Award lunch at Rise, Reimagine, and Reinvent taking place on October 19th. We hope you can join us in Phoenix to help congratulate our awardees!
Wondering who else has received an award at our conference? Check out our amazing past awardees.
