“Dr. Mark Rosenberg, president and CEO of the Task Force for Global Health, is being honored by Research!America, for his ground-breaking research in advancing injury prevention and road safety. Rosenberg will receive the 2013 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award for Sustained National Leadership for reframing the concept that road traffic crashes are not accidents.

The award will be presented to Rosenberg at the 17^th annual Research!America Advocacy Awards at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. on March 13. The dinner attracts more than 400 leaders from government, industry, academia and health advocacy organizations to recognize top medical and health research advocates, who have made an impact in advancing the nation’s commitment toward research.

“Dr. Rosenberg has been a champion of public health issues and provided incredible leadership in advocating for increased funding for research,” said Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America, in a release.

The Decatur-based Task Force is a nonprofit public health organization that works to improve the lives and health of millions of people around the world.

“Advocating for global health research is always exciting because there is always an ‘ah-ha’ moment when people come to understand the problem, identify with those who suffer from it, and become optimistic about our ability to solve it and improve millions or hundreds of millions of lives — through research,” Rosenberg wrote in an email about the significance of receiving the award.

He went on to say: “Global health research is often a hard sell because unlike the person who provides medical care and can meet the grateful patient, global health research is often designed to help people in far away countries, people who may not even be born yet.  And the support of Research!America for both specific areas of research and for those advocating for this research has been crucial.”

Rosenberg has broad experience in medicine and public health, ranging from infectious diseases to injuries and mental health. His advocacy has increased funding for research and programmatic interventions for injury control and improved traffic safety not only in the U.S. but also in many developing countries.

He has conducted research and consulted widely on effective collaboration in global health. In addition, Rosenberg worked with President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica to organize a coalition to address road traffic injuries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Before assuming his current position, Rosenberg served 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including early work in smallpox eradication, enteric diseases and HIV/AIDS. He was instrumental in establishing CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) and became the first permanent director in 1994, serving as director and Assistant Surgeon General until 1999.

 In the October 16 issue of the New York Times Magazine, Robert Stock has written a marvelous article about Sue Baker and her work. If this captivating photo is not enough to encourage you to seek it out, nothing will. The piece is long, beautifully written, and so detailed it could serve as a history of the development of injury prevention in North America beginning in 1960. The caption says it all: “Susan Baker has saved thousands of lives in her career by starting with a simple question: What is killing us? The title of the piece is The Dead Don’t Lie.  The link that follows however has a much more intriguing title — Lessons from the Morgue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/safety-lessons-from-the-morgue.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Either way, do check it out. You will learn how to make a difference if you were to follow her fantastic example!

María Seguí Gómez
Our board member, Maria Segui, has been appointed General Director of Public Health, Drug Dependency and Consumption for the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Comment: This is a huge tribute to Maria’s extraordinary talents but a great loss to European Centre for Injury Prevention at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain which she founded only a few years ago.

Kate Carr
Kate Carr became President and CEO of SafeKids Worldwide on October 2, 2011. Previously Carr was Managing Director and Chief Development Officer of Malaria No More, a nonprofit organization. She was also President and CEO for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation from 1998 – 2005.  Comment: Welcome to the world of injury prevention, Ms Carr.

Gary Smith
The work of Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy in New Mexico, is highlighted in a warm report.  www.medpagetoday.com Smith has pediatric and public health training and over many years has proven to be an effective advocate.  His most recent contribution relates to falls from high-rise windows but as the piece notes, his interests are wide-ranging and include: choking, furniture tip-overs, bath and shower slips, bunk bed crashes, cheerleading falls, gymnastics accidents, bumps from cribs and playpens, and problems on the playground.” Believing that “We know what works, we just need to apply it” he helped establish the hospital Center. Comment: What is there not to like in this laudatory report?  The title! “Accidents Leading Cause of Death in Kids”. I am still convinced that using the term ‘accidents’ (as the writer, not Smith, does) makes it much harder to achieve our goals. I wonder if any readers still agree?

Herb Simpson
The Governors Highway Safety Association’s (GHSA) most prestigious award, the James J. Howard Highway Safety Trailblazer Award, was presented posthumously to Dr. Herb Simpson for his outstanding contributions to the field of highway safety through his groundbreaking research. Dr. Simpson’s work was instrumental in identifying hard core drunk drivers as a significant contributor to highway fatalities and helped pioneer the concept of graduated driver licensing (GDL), among many other contributions.

Gerald Waters
The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) announced that this year’s Sweedler Award recipient was Gerald Waters, a road safety advocate from New Zealand. After Waters lost a friend to a repeat drunk driver, he wrote to the Justice Minister asking for a review. He then appeared before a parliamentary select committee and spoke of the need to do more to address recidivist drunk drivers.  Although not an academic, he wrote a paper ‘The Case of Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Courts in New Zealand’ highlighting the connection between drugs, alcohol and crime and emphasized the value of alcohol interlocks as part of the solution.

María Seguí Gómez

Our board member, Maria Segui, has been appointed General Director of Public Health, Drug Dependency and Consumption for the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Comment: This is a huge tribute to Maria’s extraordinary talents but a great loss to European Centre for Injury Prevention at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain which she founded only a few years ago.

Kate Carr

Kate Carr became President and CEO of SafeKids Worldwide on October 2, 2011. Previously Carr was Managing Director and Chief Development Officer of Malaria No More, a nonprofit organization. She was also President and CEO for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation from 1998 – 2005.  Comment: Welcome to the world of injury prevention, Ms Carr.

Gary Smith

The work of Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy in New Mexico, is highlighted in a warm report.  www.medpagetoday.com Smith has pediatric and public health training and over many years has proven to be an effective advocate.  His most recent contribution relates to falls from high-rise windows but as the piece notes, his interests are wide-ranging and include: choking, furniture tip-overs, bath and shower slips, bunk bed crashes, cheerleading falls, gymnastics accidents, bumps from cribs and playpens, and problems on the playground.” Believing that “We know what works, we just need to apply it” he helped establish the hospital Center. Comment: What is there not to like in this laudatory report?  The title! “Accidents Leading Cause of Death in Kids”. I am still convinced that using the term ‘accidents’ (as the writer, not Smith, does) makes it much harder to achieve our goals. I wonder if any readers still agree?

Herb Simpson

The Governors Highway Safety Association’s (GHSA) most prestigious award, the James J. Howard Highway Safety Trailblazer Award, was presented posthumously to Dr. Herb Simpson for his outstanding contributions to the field of highway safety through his groundbreaking research. Dr. Simpson’s work was instrumental in identifying hard core drunk drivers as a significant contributor to highway fatalities and helped pioneer the concept of graduated driver licensing (GDL), among many other contributions.

Gerald Waters

The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) announced that this year’s Sweedler Award recipient was Gerald Waters, a road safety advocate from New Zealand. After Waters lost a friend to a repeat drunk driver, he wrote to the Justice Minister asking for a review. He then appeared before a parliamentary select committee and spoke of the need to do more to address recidivist drunk drivers.  Although not an academic, he wrote a paper ‘The Case of Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Courts in New Zealand’ highlighting the connection between drugs, alcohol and crime and emphasized the value of alcohol interlocks as part of the solution.

Kevin Guskiewicz, chairman of UNC’s Department of Exercise and Sports Medicine, will receive $500,000 over the next five years as one of the 22 new fellows named by the MacArthur Foundation of Chicago. The money will  support his research into concussion injuries and sports.

Another recipient is Matthew Nock,  a clinical psychologist studying self-injury and suicide among adolescents and adults. His research combines epidemiology, laboratory experiments, and real-time psychological assessments.

A third is Marie-Therese Connolly who  is a lawyer involved in elder rights. Her mission is to find solutions to the ‘largely hidden but immense problems’ of elder abuse and neglect.

Comment:  Possibly none of the above would view themselves as ‘injury researchers’ but that should not prevent us from doing so! We should all be encouraged that the work they are doing in this field is being recognised by this awesome award. Congratulations to each of you.

I know this is in the Journal, but I fear some read this Blog and not the Journal and it seems important that we all acknowledge the enormous contributions Sue Baker has made to the field.  Besides, the photo in the link is lovely.

Most members of the injury prevention community agree that Sue Baker of Johns Hopkins is one of our foremost leaders. Her many and varied contributions were recognised by the award she received from Columbia University last June – what they regard as ‘the highest prize in public health’. Highest or not, it is unquestionably long overdue and fully deserved. More details are given in a wonderful editorial in the October issue by Carol Runyan.

But do visit this website for a charming photo and reference to Sue’s exploits as a pilot! http://gazette.jhu.edu/2010/04/26/susan-baker-receives-highest-prize-in-public-health/

Dr. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN, has been selected to serve as Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  This is very welcome news and a fantastic achievement for Linda, who is also a member of our editorial board.

Injury Programs at the CDC deserve a vocal advocate who understands the scope and breadth of the injury epidemic, the importance of research and the challenges and priorities of translating research findings in to workable, effective public health practice. I believe they have found someone who is truly up to that challenge.

Dr. Degutis is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and School of Public Health, and Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale University. She is the Research Director for Emergency Medicine, and directs the Yale Center for Public Health Preparedness, as well as the Connecticut Partnership for Public Health Workforce Development in the School of Public Health. From 1998-2002, she was the Director of the New Haven Regional Injury Prevention and Control Program.

She is a Past President of the American Public Health Association, as well as Past Chair of its Executive Board, and Chair of the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section. At the state level, Dr. Degutis served as the Chair of the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking, which focuses on environmental and policy change, and served on various committees and workgroups that focused on trauma system development in Connecticut. In addition, Dr. Degutis serves on the Institute of Medicine’s Advisory Board for the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship Program and the Executive Boards of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and the American Trauma Society.

Dr. Degutis’ research interests have centered on issues related to alcohol and injury, with a particular focus on interventions and policy issues. She is known internationally for her work in public health, injury, substance abuse and policy, and has served as the principal investigator or co-investigator for grants on a wide range of topics including: alcohol interventions; screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT); public health preparedness; public health workforce training; public health systems research; and interventions for opioid addiction.