April 24, 2023  | By Taylor Wismer

Meet Makayla Dudley

“Being able to educate students to live long healthy lives is not only important for them,
but for our society’s future.”

It is through our strong partnerships with educators, public health and community experts like yourself, that we are able to collectively impact the lives of youth in order for them to understand the importance of committing to a vape free life. One of many partners includes Makayla Dudley, PE/Health Teacher and Professional Learning Specialist from Knox County, Tennessee. Makayla has been a part of the CATCH My Breath community for many years. She has helped pilot and review our CATCH My Breath curriculum, has implemented the curriculum numerous times, and recently became a CATCH My Breath Community Trainer. Learn more about Makayla and her outlook on keeping our youth healthy and nicotine free.

In Makayla’s Words…

My name is Makayla Dudley, and I am a health and physical education teacher for Knox county schools in Tennessee. I decided to pursue this degree from Maryville College because as a runner I have always had a love for health and wellness. In addition to teaching, I am also a youth leader at our church. I thrive on both of these responsibilities as I hope to have a positive impact on our youth and their futures.

One of these positive impacts that I feel all educators or adult leaders value is giving our kids the knowledge to make good decisions. This in turn helps with all types of prevention such as drugs, disease, and alcohol. Being able to educate students to live long healthy lives is not only important for them, but for our society’s future. The main value comes in hoping to impact someone enough where they can overcome peer pressure and other outside influences in all aspects and then have the ability to educate others.

CATCH has been a great resource in educating youth on the harms of e-cigarette use. This program has been full of resources that educate and provide decision making and refusal skill supports to prepare them for real life situations. As a teacher, I love the continuous update of data and easy to use platform. I recently decided to become a trainer for this program, and even though I have been using this curriculum for several years I still learned things I did not know. The support from this program has educated me so that I can educate the youth in my community.

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