WASHINGTON, D.C. | Scott County’s Trent Coffey has been appointed by President Donald Trump as the Assistant Deputy Director of Use & Prevention Grants in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
After months of preliminary matters, including interviews and a vetting process, Coffey accepted the White House’s formal offer earlier this week, and will begin his new role in Washington on Aug. 31.
Coffey has served as the executive director of S.T.A.N.D. — Schools Together Allowing No Drugs — since its inception in Scott County, and has become a recognizable figure on the national drug-prevention scene. He is no stranger to the White House, landing an invitation to join Trump for a round-table discussion on drug prevention during the president’s first term in 2017.
The Deputy Director of Use & Prevention Grants is a newly-created position, and will oversee the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars in drug prevention grant funding to coalitions like S.T.A.N.D. across the country.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is a behemoth agency that coordinates across 19 federal agencies and oversees a $44 billion budget. When the position of Assistant Deputy Director of Use & Prevention Grants was created, leaders within the agency reached out to Coffey. He first declined, then reconsidered.
“I know the connections I’m going to make, and with what we’ve already done and what we have the potential to do, I can bring more back to Scott County and the State of Tennessee through this position,” Coffey told the Independent Herald Wednesday. “The dividends from that will pay for years. That’s one of the main reasons I’m doing it.”
Coffey said he has no interest in making the transition to Washington his last.
“I told them when I interviewed that this is not a career move for me,” he said. “I’ve built my career and I’m happy where I am. I’m doing this to impart knowledge on what Scott County has gotten recognition on and to help other communities across the country.”
Coffey will take a 30-month leave of absence from S.T.A.N.D. Dale Owens — a 21-year veteran of the organization — will serve as S.T.A.N.D.’s interim executive director, and Jagger Coffey — Trent’s son — will be promoted to assistant executive director.
Coffey has already secured an apartment in Washington, and his wife, Robin, will soon join him in the nation’s capital.
In a letter to the citizens of Scott County, Coffey called the decision to temporarily step away from S.T.A.N.D. “one of the most difficult decisions a person will ever make.” He called it “one of the greatest professional honors of my life” to be recruited for the newly created position at the White House.
“Throughout my career, I have believed that the most effective solutions to our nation’s challenges are built one community at a time,” he wrote. “It is deeply humbling to know that the work accomplished here in Scott County helped create an opportunity to contribute to those efforts on a national level.”
Coffey added that Scott County has become “a national example of what is possible when a community chooses unity over division, service over self-interest, and action over excuses.”
Calling Scott County home, Coffey said he is not leaving the local community behind, but that he’s taking it with him to Washington. Meanwhile, he said, Scott County will remain his home — even as he spends significant time in the nation’s capital — and that he will return to S.T.A.N.D. once his time in Washington is complete.
“My commitment to S.T.A.N.D., to the citizens of Scott County, and to the mission we have shared for more than 25 years remains as strong today as it has ever been,” he said, adding that he is confident that the foundation that has been built will be carried on in the meantime by S.T.A.N.D.’s staff and board of directors.
The move to the White House has been a long time coming for Coffey. While S.T.A.N.D.’s work — carried out at its modest facilities on Sheppard Road in Oneida — have been somewhat out-of-sight and out-of-mind at times locally over the past 25 years, the organization has served as a model for similar programs in other rural communities and has set a standard that Washington has used in its approach to drug-free communities policy.
“Because of our program, both S.T.A.N.D. and the Youth Service Learning Initiative, our relationship with the community, and the Correctional Careers Pathways initiative, we’ve gained national recognition,” Coffey said. “That’s why the drug czar came to Scott County. She had just started her position and she wanted to learn more about coalitions. So she came here. We’ve been good stewards with their dollars and we’ve trained people across the country.”
