Zili Sloboda mothered her two families in San Francisco last week. In the daytime she watched over the Society of Prevention Research that she helped to deliver nearly 20 years ago. In the evening she helped look after her three-year-old granddaughter.

Zili Sloboda's ability to manage different demands has been a feature of her career. One early supervisor of her work called her 'byzantine', something he meant as a criticism and she took as a compliment.

Her mother was Romanian and her father Austrian. Her career has taken in sociology, urban planning, and the prevention of cancer and drug and alcohol abuse. No single discipline seems to be able harness the whole of her eclectic talents.

"I was a sociologist, but I was frustrated by sociology's ideology and in-fighting," she explained. "I was trained at Barnard College (part of Columbia University) and I was naturally drawn to C. Wright Mills and his sociological imagination. In those days the girls at Barnard used to host tea parties and at one I overheard a leading quantitative scientist being personally critical of Mills. It quite put me off sociology."

Sloboda has always been interested in the social aspects of prevention. She was involved in studies of sickle cell anemia in Chicago and cancer in Philadelphia. What struck her most was how difficult it was to get people to come into the clinic to be tested. In disadvantaged communities cancer was seen as the "devil's disease" and success could not be trusted to result from the success of the intervention alone; it required changing deeply-held cultural views.

Almost by accident she found herself working for the prevention of HIV infection in the early days of understanding about the disease. She needed working models and found she had most to learn from experts in the field of drug and alcohol abuse.

"They knew about measurement; they were interested in why some kids didn't respond to the intervention; and they had smart research designs." In these connections the first seeds of the Society for Prevention Research were sown.

During the late 1980s Sloboda led a series of discussions among staff employed by, and scientists supported by, the National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA. With a colleague at NIDA, Bill Bukoski, she convened what became the first meeting of the Society in Pittsburgh in 1991. Nineteen people attended, all of them experts in the field of drug abuse prevention.

Until the late 1990s, parallel meetings of experts in the mental health field convened ad hoc meetings. But suddenly their funds dried up and after a groundbreaking conference in Baltimore in 1997 the Society began to reach more broadly into all aspects of children's health and development.

"Of course there are tensions. Some experts in the drug field wanted to keep it as a small group. But the opportunities for a common knowledge base across several disciplines far outweighs the disadvantages." Sloboda takes pride in the fact that this year the conference is so well attended that some submissions for presentations have had to be rejected.

In addition to the annual conference the Society sponsors, its journal called Prevention Science is emerging as one of the most important in the field. Sloboda views the stronger base of the Society as a platform for advancing the field. The Task Forces formed to map the challenges associated with Type 2 Translation Research [see: Lost in translation] and the developing knowledge about gene and environment interactions are evidence of this commitment.

The Society has also become a powerful advocate for prevention. "I was at a conference in Wake Forest in North Carolina that brought together journalist and legislators. A reporter from the Washington Post was interested in the speaker before me but didn't leave the room before it was my turn. He found himself stuck listening to me. But then he got fascinated. He hadn't realized that prevention science existed, that it had a history, that it could tell us so much about how to help children. What journalists need is a hook. If we can help them find it, we can do so much more to disseminate our work."

In boosting capacity in this area Sloboda takes counsel from her daughter, a television producer, and is extremely impressed by research scientists, such as Matt Sanders from the University of Queensland, who have used the media particularly effectively [see: If it’s a good program, why not make it into a series?].

She knows from hard-bitten experience that progress will depend on collaboration and encouraging the development of a new generation of prevention scientists. One of her aspirations for her presidency is to see to completion a document that will define prevention science – and stand the test of time.

She nurtures links between science and practice and is proud of connections forged with the National Prevention Network (NPN) of practitioners. "At present our agreement with NPN is based on a handshake. Each invites the others to their meetings. I want to build on these mutual friendships and forge a more substantial basis for coalition."

Another strand of work dear to her heart is the Knowledge Task Force, which is seeking to establish the core competencies of prevention scientists. "You cannot find prevention scientists in the Yellow Pages but you can find medical services, and social workers and psychologists. What would a parent say if their child said 'I want to be a prevention scientist when I grow up?' I want the Society to help build the infrastructure so that such inquiries do not seem unusual and can be easily answered."

And her number one goal for her presidency? "A clear and enduring definition for prevention science is one. But I also want the membership to be actively involved. If everyone gets involved delivering messages about the value of prevention to our communities, then I will die a happy person."