With decades of experience in trauma, addiction and adolescent health, Hansen is one of two speakers for the third annual Shed Some Light medical conference in Williamsport.

Dr. Michelle Cretella, a researcher, educator, writer and past president of the American College of Pediatricians (ACP), will also speak at the free one-night event. It is scheduled from 7–9:30 p.m. on March 26 at Williamsport’s Trade and Transit Center, 144 West Third St.

Cretella–who currently chairs the Adolescent Committee for ACP–will begin the evening with a talk on “School-Based Sex Education in the U.S.” It will highlight negative consequences of teen sexual activity while explaining why approaches based on “risk avoidance” (formerly called “abstinence”) tend to out-perform “risk reduction.”

“My presentation will be an eye-opening discussion regarding the impact of sexually-suggestive and explicit media upon children,” says Cretella–adding that she will also address “ways parents and schools can best protect and nurture our children. This will include reviewing scientific evaluations of school-based sex education.”

Michelle Cretella

Conference organizer Dr. Russell Gombosi–who is board-certified in internal medicine, pediatrics and sleep medicine–adds this regarding Cretella’s presentation: “A pathway-to-success model reveals how delaying sex initiation improves long-term educational, life and job successes.”

After a short break with refreshments provided by Expectations Women’s Center in Williamsport, Hansen will take the podium for “Adolescent and Child Risk-Taking and Resiliency.”

“My presentation explores the current explosion in teen anxiety, depression and dysregulated behavior through the lens of modern neuroscience and human development,” Hansen explains.

Today’s teens are vulnerable, Hansen adds, “because their reward systems mature years before their capacity for self-regulation. In a digital world built on constant stimulation and dopamine-driven feedback, that normal developmental imbalance is intensified in ways no previous generation has experienced.

“What often gets labeled as defiance, withdrawal, impulsivity or even pathology is very frequently the predictable expression of a nervous system that has not yet been given the conditions required to build resilience–attuned relationships, co-regulation, meaning, identity and belonging.”

Fortunately, Hansen notes, “the same brain that is vulnerable to dysregulation is also exquisitely designed for healing when the right protective systems are put in place.

“This is an urgent conversation for parents, educators, clinicians, pastors and anyone who cares about the next generation, because the solutions are not found in fear or blame, but in understanding how young people are formed and how resilience is intentionally built.”

The Cretella and Hansen presentations will be followed by a panel discussion featuring both speakers, as well as Gombosi.

As the conference moves into its third year, Gombosi explains that it was “born out of the liberal bias within organized medicine that limits balanced educational discussions, especially from a conservative perspective.”

Shed Some Light is free and open to the public, with donations accepted–to benefit Expectations; the conference is sponsored by J.A.K.S. Realty.

To register, contact Gombosi at rgombosi@openarmsmedpeds.com; or snail-mail to Gombosi at 3155 Lycoming Creek Rd., Williamsport, PA 17701.