Founder's Note

March Madness is here - and HarborPath is proud to be in the game.

We are thrilled to welcome Sahara Williams, a key contributor on the University of Oklahoma Women's Basketball team, as our newest student-athlete ambassador. Sahara is passionate about protecting her fellow students, and her story is one of remarkable resilience.

Sahara brings more than athletic achievement to this role, she brings lived experience. She has navigated significant personal adversity, including family incarceration and housing instability, and has witnessed firsthand the devastating toll that drugs and overdose can take on a community. That experience has shaped a deep commitment to protecting others, and she is channeling it directly into HarborPath's naloxone outreach efforts at OU.

What makes Sahara's voice especially powerful is its authenticity. She is speaking to her peers from a place of genuine understanding, drawing on her own story to make the stakes feel real and the call to action feel personal.

That kind of peer-to-peer outreach is exactly what our work at OU is designed to support. Our campaign connects students directly to free naloxone and on-campus resources, meeting them where they are and removing barriers to access. We are grateful to partners like FFF Enterprises, whose commitment to efficient naloxone distribution and campus-based overdose prevention solutions makes this work possible at scale.

We are honored to have her on our team.

You can view her first social media PSA here.

-Ken Trogdon, President of HarborPath

Understanding SUDEP: Advocating for the Information Families Deserve

Each year, more than 3,400 people in the United States die from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy — more than fires, more than Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Yet most Americans have never heard of SUDEP, and far too many patients and families never receive this information from their medical team.

Approximately 3.4 million people in the U.S. live with epilepsy, and 1 in 26 individuals will develop it during their lifetime. For many of them, access to clear, honest information about SUDEP could be the difference between tragedy and prevention. Despite clinical guidelines recommending that patients and families be informed about the risk, awareness remains devastatingly low. Too often, families only learn about SUDEP after losing someone they love.

HarborPath Policy Council board member Hannah Whitten knows that reality firsthand. Her brother Dylan passed away from SUDEP at age 25. Her family had no idea the risk existed. 

Rather than stepping away from that grief, Hannah has channeled it into action by lending her voice and leadership to the Policy Council and advocating for the policy changes that can help ensure no other family faces the same.

Through the HarborPath Policy Council, we are working in several states to advance practical solutions: requiring patient and caregiver education about SUDEP risks, improving death certificate reporting to strengthen research, and ensuring families have access to the information they need to make informed care decisions.

We encourage you to watch Hannah's interview and learn more about this urgent issue.

Ken's Take

Hannah's story is exactly why we built the HarborPath Policy Council. Underserved issues deserve focused and sustained advocacy.  SUDEP is one of the most underserved issues in American healthcare.

The information gap around SUDEP can be corrected by smart, targeted legislation. Our work in several states is focused on practical interventions: education requirements, improved data collection, and ensuring that patients and caregivers receive the information they are entitled to have.

No family should learn about SUDEP only after a tragedy. We are proud to stand alongside Hannah in this work, and committed to advancing the policies that protect lives.

News You Need to Know About the Fentanyl Crisis

•  Colorado Newsline: Fewer new moms are dying in Colorado — naloxone might be one reason why
•  WRAL News: All school buses in Nash County to be equipped emergency overdose kits, district says
•  UCONN Daily Campus: Students learn how to administer naloxone at documentary screening
• WHYY: Pennsylvania parents, families call for statewide grief support services for overdose and drug-related losses

Help us make a difference by providing lifesaving drugs to those in need.

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