About Student Leadership Services
With collective experience that spans a century, our team's dedication to the health, safety, and empowerment of youth is unparalleled.
Our Mission
We stand firmly in our belief that when you capture the passion of youth, give them focus, support, and agency, you change lives. SLS has been doing just this since 1982 and our commitment has never wavered.
Student Leadership Services trains students in leadership, resistance skills, and peer education so they can keep their communities safe from drugs, alcohol, and peer pressure. Our programs are evidence-based, SAMHSA-recognized, and independently validated by Wayne State University.
Forty years of student-led prevention
Since 1982, SLS has trained more than 260,000 students across Michigan to lead prevention work in their schools and communities. The approach is simple to state and hard to do well: take students who care about their peers, give them evidence-based knowledge and leadership skills, then support them as they create change.
The methodology rests on a research-backed insight — youth substance use, mental health struggles, bullying, and risky behavior do not develop in a vacuum. They are part of a continuum that includes social alienation, low self-esteem, and disengagement from school. The most effective response is not a lecture but belonging: students learning from peers they trust, in environments designed to build resilience.
That insight has been independently validated. A seven-year Wayne State University study (2011–2018) across 23 Michigan high schools measured seven outcomes — from substance use to school engagement to leadership skills — and confirmed that SLS chapter participants experienced statistically meaningful improvements across the board.
Today, SLS chapters and STAND chapters operate across Michigan, alongside an active Student Advisory Board, alumni network, and partnerships with foundations, school districts, and national organizations. The work continues because the need does — and because the model works.
Meet our people
Staff
Ann Colwell Johnson
Program Specialist
Ann joined the SLS team in October 2024. She taught Language Arts and Science to 6th-8th graders at Mason Middle School in Waterford for 23 years. She has a Masters Degree in Science Education from Walden University.
Dawn Flood, LMSW, CPC-R
Executive Director/CEO
Dawn joined the SLS team in 2004 and has been involved in peer education and youth-led prevention programming since 1998. After 18 years with SLS and serving as Prevention Specialist and Program Director, Dawn accepted the Executive Director position in 2022. Dawn works directly with chapter advisors and students throughout Michigan, combining her school social work background with a cognitive behavioral approach to prevention.
Marcia Partin
Prevention Specialist
Marcia joined the SLS team in 2021. She previously was a Prevention Manager developing in-school and afterschool prevention programming and summer camps in Detroit. Marcia uses her experience to understand youth struggles and to see the potential in every young person to do great things.
Pamela Voss-Page, M. Ed.
Research Director
Pamela Voss-Page has served SLS since 1984 and was a founding member of the SLS Board of Directors. Over the years, Pam held various roles in the organization and became the Executive Director in 1994. As a result of her dedication, Michigan led the nation in effective youth-led health and safety programming. Her ongoing commitment to prevention research and evidence-based practice continues with annual evaluation and the validation study that led to national recognition.
Board of Directors
Dianne Bostic Robinson, LMSW
Secretary/Strategic Planning Chair
Dianne is a Licensed Master of Social Work and retired non-profit executive who joined the SLS board in 1997. She has directed nonprofit agencies and held executive level positions across child welfare, foster care, residential treatment, and substance abuse organizations.
Michael Beard
Board Member
Mike joined the SLS board in 2025 and brings 26 years of diverse experience in education. He serves as Director of Educational Outreach and Director of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives at Hudson Area Schools in Hudson, MI.
Toni Lauretano
Vice President
Toni is a Development and Fundraising professional, currently an Assistant Director of Development in the Michigan Medicine Office of Development at the University of Michigan. She was a member of the Chelsea High School Students Leading Students Chapter all four years of high school and joined the SLS Board of Directors in 2019 as the Fund Development Chair.
Ward Bartlett
Board President
Ward Bartlett spent his career as a social and physical sciences teacher in Warren Consolidated Schools. He retired in 2024 after thirty years at Mott and Cousino High Schools. He was an advisor for his schools SLS chapters for 28 years and continues to visit schools and provide advisor trainings across Michigan. He has been a member of the SLS Board since 1997.
Zane Sami Hatahet
Media Spokesperson
Zane joined the Board of SLS in 2016. He works as an Assistant General Counsel for RealTruck in Ann Arbor, MI, after earning his Juris Doctor and undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan. The Governor of Michigan appointed Zane to serve as a State Commissioner on the Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs.
Our emerging leaders
Established in 1986, we train each passionate group of emerging leaders to lead and teach their peers and younger students. They work with our team and member schools to promote youth involvement, networking, and stakeholder partnerships.
A'niyah Daniels
Clarenceville High School · 2nd year member
Kaley Long
Taylor High School
Marvin Mills
Marion Jr/Sr High School · 3rd year member
Myah Randolph
Brighton High School · 2nd year member
Zacur Harrell
Clarenceville High School
[VERIFY: awaiting Dawn — student advisory board members for 2025–2026]
Want to work with us?
Start a chapter, book a workshop, or support student-led prevention with a tax-deductible donation.