Rebecca Gerhardt is the oldest of four children, and her younger three siblings are all brothers. Her father heads the Building Trades Department at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, ND and has a small construction company, and her mother is a nurse at Standing Rock Hospital. Rebecca also has two children. Reed is seven and just finished the first grade, and Emily just turned four. Rebecca enjoys riding roller coasters, rock climbing, and doing things with her children.

Rebecca graduated from Moorhead State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education and Sports Medicine. Her experience includes working with youth for five years, providing sports medicine coverage to the Bismarck Public Schools, and working with Tobacco Prevention doing model programs in schools and cessation for two years. She is still involved in sports medicine but considers this more of a hobby than a job. Most recently, Rebecca worked as a Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator for Region 7 in North Dakota. This background experience helped make it a natural transition to expand her position by combining her Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator duties with Region 7 Safe and Drug Free Communities Coordinator duties.

Aside from her job as the Region 7 Safe and Drug Free Communities and Prevention Coordinator, Rebecca is on the Safe Kids Coalition as a representative of the Region 7 Prevention Program. She is also a member of several other coalitions including Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention, Suicide Prevention, and the Bismarck-Mandan Safety Council. She still provides Sports Medicine coverage for several events, and participates in activities within her son’s school as well.

Rebecca say the only part of her job she doesn’t really like is the reports, but working with all the great people she comes in contact with really makes up for that. Rebecca always appreciates a good challenge, and she hopes to make an honest change, not just do “feel good” projects. Rebecca says, “I grew up on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. I witnessed a lot of devastation due to alcohol abuse and have always been an advocate for legal appropriate use.” Rebecca also plans to strengthen the coalition’s confidence, so that together, community resistance can be overcome and someday the social norms can change.