Dr. Hayden D. Center, Jr. is a core faculty member in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at the University of Phoenix. He was previously on faculty at Auburn University at Montgomery in the Department of Psychology, where he taught for ten years. He has taught at several universities over the past thirty years. He has been a licensed professional counselor (LPC) specializing in addiction issues for over 35 years.
Dr. Center has worked as a consultant in alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse prevention since 1987. He has worked in the field of prevention for more than 30 years. He served as the director of a US Department of Education (USDOE) grant while at Auburn University. He served the State of Alabama Department of Education as the coordinator of the state Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program. He was a consultant to the Alabama Governor’s Office of Drug Abuse Policy for ten years and has worked with numerous state and local agencies in the state of Alabama. He served as the evaluator for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s (CSAP) Southeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (SECAPT) and the Border Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (BCAPT). He has provided over 500 trainings and workshops on the topics of science-based prevention, evaluation, risk and protective factors, sustainability of health promotion efforts, cannabis, opioid use disorder, and other topics. He has worked with numerous agencies and organizations at the national, state, and local levels as an evaluator, including three Drug-Free Community grants.
Most recently Dr. Center has conducted trainings and webinars on implementation science, the psychopharmacology of marijuana, opioid use disorder, the opioid epidemic, and preventing opioid overdose death. He is also working on the development of an education module for a national project on “What Prevention Professionals Need to Know About Cannabis”.
University of Phoenix established the Life Resource Center to provide confidential wellness services that support students in navigating life’s challenges, at no additional cost to students. The updated online portal has features based on needs expressed by students and is a place for student health and well-being. Students can quickly access confidential counseling, 24-hour crisis help, peer support groups, financial consulting, life coaching, and on-demand tools to support healthy living. The program is meant to be there when students really need it and provides a unique support to get students help in the moment, right when they need it. Especially during the pandemic, there has been an increase in students who experience challenges outside of their academic work, with mental and emotional well-being.
The Life Resource Center puts the working adult student at the center of its focus. In addition to counseling and services, Peer Support Groups offer a unique lifeline for issues including addiction, depression, bipolar, anxiety, parenting, LGBTQ+, frontline workers, and grief.
