Forging New Frontiers 2022

What a pleasure it is to welcome you back in person, to the 27th Injury Free Coalition for Kids Annual Conference, Forging New Frontiers: Keeping All Kids Safe: Equity in Injury Prevention and Addressing Injuries during COVID. We have all been able to stay in contact with each other through the virtual conference this past March and through our committees and membership calls, but this is a very special time as we can now get back to networking in person. The energy of the Injury Free family has continued to grow innovative strategies for injury prevention in our children's hospitals and communities. Through our publication of our annual meeting supplement in Injury Epidemiology, we continue to share our work with others.

This year our focus on equity in injury prevention brings a very special keynote speaker, Sadiqa A.I. Kendi, MD, FAAP, CPST, Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center, a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow, and Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. We look forward to Dr. Kendi's expertise in health equity to promote fair and equitable injury prevention practices in our many children's hospitals and communities. We are excited to welcome Wendy J. Pomerantz, MD, MS, FAAP and Holly R. Hanson, MD, MS to address an important recent health crisis: injuries and COVID. Dr. Pomerantz is a pediatric emergency medicine physician, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, Co-Director of the Comprehensive Children's Injury Center, and Co-Director of Cincinnati's Injury Free Coalition for Kids. Dr. Hanson is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University and an attending physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. Both emergency medicine researchers, Dr. Pomerantz and Dr. Hanson will present a keynote address on injuries during the COVID pandemic.

We are excited to present this year's Pioneer Award to Dr. Marilyn J. Bull to honor her long career dedicated to car passenger safety for children with special health care needs and ambulance transportation safety. Marilyn J. Bull, MD, FAAP, is a neurodevelopmental pediatrician at Riley Children's Hospital and the Morris Green Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine. As an innovator and international leader in transportation of children with disabilities, we are honored to hear her keynote presentation.

Putting together an exciting conference like ours takes many dedicated colleagues. A special thanks to the members of the Program Committee for their work organizing the conference. I thank the Scientific Publications Committee and their energetic chair, Dr. Kathy Monroe, who have done an incredible job of reviewing abstracts. Thanks also go to the presenters, panelists, keynote speakers, and moderators for sharing their expertise with us. A special word of thanks to Walt, Lenita, and DiLenny for their hard work and dedication to Injury Free and their extensive knowledge, technical expertise, and experience in putting on this conference.

And now for a very special thanks to our conference guru who has been our guiding star for the past 20 years. Lenita has put her whole self into each and every conference. Her dedication, wisdom, expertise, kindness, and ability to develop and direct an exciting conference every year is remarkable and so appreciated….AND makes Injury Free what it is today. At this twenty year anniversary of Lenita's work, we want to shout out a very special thanks to a very special woman. Lenita, thanks for all you do!

Many thanks for attending OUR conference. May you have many opportunities to network with both new attendees and known colleagues! When we come together and share injury prevention ideas, we are joining forces to make children safer.

Sincerely,