Seven friends. One mission.
Keynote speaker and national leader in drug prevention education. For 20 years, Darren has taught the adults who reach young people how to talk about drugs in a way kids actually hear.
Where the shift started
At a young age, I lost seven close friends to drugs and alcohol. Those losses never left me. For a long time I carried them quietly while I built businesses and stayed busy, but I knew I wasn’t doing the work I was meant to do.
In 2006 I found a better way to address the problem I had seen firsthand. A way to educate, not lecture. To inform, not shame. To give people facts and tools that actually change decisions.
I realized the most powerful way to protect young people wasn’t one-time talks. It was training the adults who reach them every day: the driver ed instructor, the school resource officer, the health teacher, the coach.
“When educators are trained with purpose and clarity, they don’t just teach information. They change lives.”
The path
- Before 16Loses seven friends to drugs and alcohol.
- 2006Discovers a fact-based, non-judgmental approach and starts training educators.
- 2019Founds the nonprofit Drug Educators Alliance to take the work national.
- Today20,869 educators trained, 5.6 million young people reached, programs in all 50 states.
Organizations that have brought Darren in
Also: state driver education associations across the country, the North Carolina Association of School Resource Officers, Missouri DOT, Idaho State Department of Education, Vermont Agency of Education, Quebec Ministry of Transport, the City of Boston and the City of Fitchburg, MA.
Speaker kit
Everything you need for your program, website and stage.
Full bio 100 words
Darren Tessitore is a keynote speaker and national leader in drug prevention education. Over 20 years he has trained more than 20,000 educators, including driver education instructors, school resource officers, teachers and community leaders, to talk with young people about drugs, fentanyl, vaping and impaired driving without lecturing or scare tactics. Programs he built have reached more than 5.6 million young people in all 50 states. After losing seven friends to drugs and alcohol before age 16, Darren made prevention his life’s work, and in 2019 founded the nonprofit Drug Educators Alliance. He speaks nationwide from Clearwater, Florida.
Short bio 50 words
Darren Tessitore is a keynote speaker and drug prevention educator who has trained more than 20,000 driver educators, school resource officers and teachers to talk with young people about drugs without scare tactics. He founded the nonprofit Drug Educators Alliance in 2019 and speaks nationwide from Clearwater, Florida.
Emcee introduction 45 seconds
Our next speaker has spent 20 years on one mission: helping the adults who reach young people talk about drugs in a way kids actually hear. Before he turned 16, Darren Tessitore lost seven friends to drugs and alcohol. That loss became his life’s work. Since then he has trained more than 20,000 teachers, driver educators, school resource officers and community leaders across all 50 states, and in 2019 he founded the nonprofit Drug Educators Alliance. His approach is simple: facts, not fear. Please help me welcome Darren Tessitore.
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