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Robert Natt became the new Executive Director of Partnership for Community Wellness earlier this year. He replaces Nancy Hans who has served the organization for more than two decades. She spoke to us about her years of service. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno has more.
Nancy Hans started volunteering with the organization in 2001 when it was called the Prevention Council of Roanoke County. She joined its Board of Directors in 2005 and became Executive Director in 2014. In 2001, the organization received a Drug Free Community Grant. Hans says the first generation of K-through-12 students to go through the program faced different threats than today’s students.
“There weren’t cell phones back there. There wasn’t Instagram, there wasn’t Snapchat, all of this. And what we were initially doing, we were saying we wanted to make sure that kids got to age 21 before they ever took a first sip of any alcohol. We wanted them not to pick up a cigarette. And those were two big deals.”
In 2015 the group expanded its partnerships to tackle the resurgence of heroin addiction by including addiction treatment professionals.
In 2022, the organization became The Partnership for Community Wellness. Drug and addiction education is still a focus but now that addiction education includes cellphones and social media. A program called Wait until the Eighth offers help in dealing with the issues cellphones can cause.
“That says we need to help our kids to wait until at least eighth grade to understand what this phone really is about. And now we have a lot, there are many more choices to not have internet access or app access on the phones. You know, there are just phones to make sure your kids are safe wherever they are.”
Though she has retired from PCW she is still involved in community wellness by serving on several boards. An avid outdoors woman she plans to train and compete in a triathlon next fall. Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.
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Nancy Hans has been serving the Roanoke Valley since shortly after she moved to the area in1999. As WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno tells us most of that time was spent with the Partnership of Community Wellness.
Nancy Hans was a teacher in Maryland before moving to the Roanoke Valley. She continued working with students through the Prevention Council of Roanoke County which would become the Partnership for Community Wellness. Hans served as the executive director of the PCW from 2014 until she retired earlier this year. Mental health and substance use issues have been a focus of the organization. Hans says helping families is the key.
“There may be one person that has the disease, which it is a disease of addiction, and it can immediately impact five people. And so the more that we can help the families, and I believe in there’s a lot of research around two and three generational teaching, that the more that we can do this, then can we see the shift.”
The Commonwealth is having success in reducing overdose deaths. Virginia’s rate peaked in 2021, at 30 deaths per 100,000 residents. In 2025 the rate fell nearly 51%. There is still work to do. Hans urges parents to put down their phones and keep an open line of communication with their children.
“It’s early and often and just keep doing it. And even when they’re going off to college, we did this whole social side of college. You got to talk to both your boys and your girls. It’s not one or the other. And we have to be engaged and look them in the eye.”
The PCW named longtime board member Robert Natt to succeed Hans. In addition to continuing to volunteer, an avid outdoors woman, Hans plans to train and compete in a triathlon next fall. Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.
The post Nancy Hans talks about her years with the Partnership of Community Wellness first appeared on News/Talk 960-AM & FM-107.3 WFIR.
