Borisy-Rudin to Study Whether New Tools Improve Uptake of Alcohol Age Compliance Checks in Wisconsin

Felice Borisy-Rudin, JD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Policy Analyst for the Comprehensive Injury Center’s Division of Alcohol Policy, Prevention, and Research and Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project (WisAPP), has received a one-year New Faculty Pilot Award totaling $34,915 from the MCW Research Affairs Committee. Borisy-Rudin's project titled, “Assessing community implementation of Wisconsin-focused tools for reducing underage access to alcohol” will seek to examine whether new tools developed by WisAPP designed to support local communities in implementing alcohol age compliance checks (AACCs) are effective in increasing their use across Wisconsin. AACCs are an evidence-based practice aimed at reducing alcohol sales to people under 21 to prevent underage drinking.

WisAPP released a Wisconsin-specific Alcohol Age Compliance Check Manual in December 2023 that provides guidelines for developing local AACC protocols. They are also preparing to launch a statewide database and tool called, “The Wisconsin Alcohol Inspector” (WAI) that will support local communities implementing AACCs in determining how well alcohol retailers are complying with the minimum legal drinking age law. Through this project, Borisy-Rudin and her collaborators will be able to:

• Assess the roll out and implementation of the AACC tools.
• Use WAI data to assess challenges and opportunities for AACC implementation.
• Design a future study in support of an external funding application to comprehensively track and assess statewide AACC results.

The MCW Research Affairs Committee New Faculty Pilot Grant provides seed funding to faculty within four years of their first MCW appointment for the initiation of new projects. The primary goal of the award is to help applicants obtain preliminary results that will enable them to compete successfully for extramural funding.

To learn more about Dr. Borisy-Rudin’s study, please contact fborisyrudin@mcw.edu.