• ECIC Updates: Our 20th Anniversary edition of our Annual Report is now available and full of highlights from our Center's inception in 1993. Copies are available at our events or click on the report (right) to download a copy. Faculty and Practitioner surveys will be coming out this June; please fill these out so we can use your responses to improve our programs and activities. The 2014 Safe States Annual Meeting is coming up May 20-22 here in Atlanta. Don't miss ECIC's panel on May 21st at 10:30am, "We're All in This Together: A Local Example of Community Collaboration in Action". Also to note, over the summer ECIC will have limited capacity. Please contact the Deputy Director, Ms. Shakiyla Smith, with any requests. We should be hearing about our ICRC grant score this summer and will share any news at the next meeting.

• CDC Guest:  Dr. Rod McClure, the newly appointed Director for the Division of Analysis, Research and Practice Integration (DARPI) within the National Injury Center at CDC, joined us to talk about his background, new plans for the division, and encouraged future collaboration.    

Dr. Rod McClure, MBBS, PhD, FAFPHM, FAICD

• TBI in Youth Presentation: Dr. Julie Haarbauer-Krupa, Health Scientist for the TBI Team at CDC and research faculty at CHOA, gave us information about an updated dataset which estimates annual rates of TBI and the primary mechanisms associated. Dr. Haarbauer-Kruper is the principal investigator on a study at CHOA involving children who have experienced TBI before the age of 5. She is examining the primary causes, service utilization, and differences in social language use and behavior.   

• Legislative Update: Ms. Kimberly Stringer, Deputy Director of Government Relations at the Georgia Department of Public Health, gave us a legislative update on the injury-related bills. Now that the session is over, the 2 year cycle is over and bills will not be able to carry over into the next session but must be re-introduced. Ms. Stringer updated us on bills that fizzled out, did not make it to the floor, passed or are waiting on Governor Deal's signature. To get bill specific information, please visit our bill tracking site. 

• Brown Bag Lecture Series: Our last Brown Bag lecture on March 7th with Dr. Ron Seel from the Shepherd Center was fantastic. Dr. Seel presented on outcomes from his ECIC-funded pilot project "Dissemination of a Safety Risk Scale for Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury". Stay tuned for the next lecture this fall, 10/22/14, at Emory's School of Public Health, "A Grounded Theory of College Students' Experience with Suicidal Peers" presented by a former Summer Scholarship recipient, Ms. Amanda Garcia-Williams.   

• Summer Scholarship Program: Congratulations to our 3 scholarship recipients! We had a competitive review process this year with many innovative projects. Thank you to everyone who submitted. Best of luck on your projects this summer!

Matt Jackson - Georgia State University

Safecare to Daycare: Preventing Injuries in Childcare  

Daniella Coker - Emory University

Qualitative Process Evaluation for EFAR in South Africa 

Caroline McNicholas - University of Georgia

Victimized for Being Different: Young Adults' Recollections of Bullying in Middle and High School 

• Practitioner Training Program: ECIC's 4th Practitioner Training Program was held on March 14, 2014 at the Rollins School of Public Health. This was another successful training with over 40 participants learning about Program Planning, Program Evaluation, and Nonprofit Business Planning/ Grant Readiness. Many thanks to our expert trainers!

• WestJEM: We anticipate the 5th issue to come out October 2014. Many thanks to our authors and reviewers for participating in our efforts to disseminate our cross-cutting research in injury prevention. Links to all past ECIC issues can be found on our website.     

ECIC Associate Director of Research