2022 Principal Investigator of the Year Award
Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Injury Free Coalition for Kids
Lurie Childrens Hospital
Chicago, IL
Dr. Sheehan serves as the Medical Director of the Injury Prevention and Research Center at Lurie Childrens, the Associate Chair of Advocacy in the Department o Pediatrics at Lurie Children's, the Medical Director of SafeKids Illinois, the Interim Co-Director of the Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program at Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute, the Medical Director of Strengthening Chicago's Youth at Lurie Children's, and the Director of the Health and Society Element Group at NIJ Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern. She is Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Injury Free has known Dr. Sheehan as a long-term champion, injury prevention expert, collaborator, friend, and colleague.
If there is anything related to pediatric injury prevention, Dr. Sheehan is a willing participant to share expertise and care to the youth of Chicago. Starting during her pediatric residency, Dr. Sheehan was involved in the health care and social care of youth long before the words "social determinants of health" were described. As her colleague Amy Hill writes, "Dr Sheehan is a first-rate researcher and presenter. She presents on intentional and unintentional Injury Topics at national conferences and frequently serves as a moderator at Injury Free's annual conference. In addition to presenting at conferences, she is a frequent guest on local and national media. Dr. Sheehan has also been invited to testify on injury prevention topics before local and national political leaders. Finally, she has published research in multiple journals and serves as a frequent peer reviewer of academic work. Dr. Sheehan has played a critical role in developing injury prevention efforts at the local level that have led to city-wide change. One such effort was the Stop the Falls window falls prevention program which led to awareness and window falls reductions in Chicago. Another important effort was Safe at Play which focused on playground safety and inequality in Chicago playgrounds. Her work and research contributed to widespread changes at the Chicago Park District. These changes led to the development of the Chicago Plays Initiative which replaced each of the 500 Chicago Park District playgrounds which were aging and in various states of disrepair. Recently, Karen has been involved in statewide legislation on safe firearm storage."
Another colleague, Dr. Susan Sanguino, Senior Associate Dean of Medical Education at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, writes " Dr. Sheehan realized before many others did the effect of poverty on health. She became a founding volunteer member for the Chicago Youth Programs (CYP), a youth development organization whose mission is to improve the life opportunities of at-risk youth. It is through my involvement in the Chicago Youth Programs as a medical student that I first met Karen. What struck me about Karen was how passionate she was about making a difference for everyone but in particular for those individuals who were marginalized or disadvantaged. During her Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship Karen founded a clinic at Children's Memorial Hospital (now the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago) for the children of CYP. Over the last twenty-eight years I have worked side-by-side with Karen in clinic. Karen is an outstanding clinician but more importantly she is compassionate, patient and kind....... Throughout her career, Karen has consistently shown excellence in teaching and education. She has won numerous teaching awards from students and residents and was selected by the medical student body for induction into the Gold Humanism Society in recognition of her outstanding clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service."
Dr. Sheehan exemplifies the spirit of the PI of the Year Award. Her continuous dedication to children and youth, her understanding of social determinants of health, poverty, and risk for injury, and her exemplary leadership to further injury prevention in all communities make her a most deserving recipient of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids PI Award.
2022 Program Coordinator of the Year Award
Adrienne Gallardo, BSW, MAOM, CPST-I
Injury Prevention Manager
Doernbecher Children's Hospital
Portland, Oregon
Adrienne is an exceptional PC in the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. Her passion to provide injury prevention to her communities, her willingness to share innovative injury prevention practices with others, and her dynamic approach to injury prevention all are testament to her excellence as an injury prevention champion for children. Since 2012, Adrienne has served as the injury prevention manager at the Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon. She oversees injury prevention strategies.
Dr. Ben Hoffman wrote this. "I have worked with Adrienne for 11 years, initially in our roles as certified Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Technicians at community car seat events. She was working for another program at that time, but I was struck by not only her encyclopedic knowledge about CPS, but also by her engaging demeanor with families, and her obvious leadership skills. When she joined us, we had 1.25 FTE, and our work had a narrow focus on community car seat checks, community bike helmet distribution, and a small safety store in our lobby. Our funding was limited to support from the Kohl's Cares for Kids Foundation, and we lived in constant fear of what would happen should that disappear. Adrienne and I quickly bonded over our shared passions and values, and we created a blueprint for the future that included establishing a CPS fitting station, expanding our safety store services and impact, and engaging the hospital community in a more authentic way. I will spare you the details, but fast forward 10 years, and Adrienne and I have worked together to build a team that is exceptional. We now have staff of 9 health educators, all funded by our hospital. Our staff round on all inpatient units to identify any safety/injury prevention needs, and have a system to provide consultation to any family, inpatient or outpatient. We worked with our risk management team, and within 6 months opened a CPS fitting station at Doernbecher that sees over 1000 visits annually. We have doubled the size of our safety store and are currently providing child safety products to our state child welfare system across Oregon. We have assumed the Dept. of Transportation grant for CPS training, overseeing all activity in Oregon. We are working with a number of community partners to address issues of equality and social justice in child injury. We have collaboratively performed a number of studies, ranging from car seat use at newborn discharge, car seat tolerance screening, firearm storage practices and child drowning that have been published in peer reviewed literature, and led to significant state policy change. We have indeed gone together from nothing, to everything. And for this one can only blame Adrienne.
Violet Larry of the Healthy Birth Initiatives of the Multnomah County Health Department in Oregon wrote that her organization has partnered with Adrienne on safe sleep and safe firearm storage to serve underserved African American families in their communities. She noted that "we cannot say enough about Adrienne's dedication and desire to do whatever it takes to keep children safe...She is generous, creative, and always willing to partner with us to keep the children in our community safe....She has been a wonderful support to our families and we appreciate her"...
Adrienne is a very active injury prevention expert with Injury Free. Serving on the Injury Free Board, Adrienne is always ready to pitch in and share her injury prevention strategies. In one area, Adrienne shared with the board the problems of "fake" car seats and how her site is education their families on these problem car seats. Adrienne, congratulations on your Injury Free PC of the Year Award!