Kathy W. Monroe, MD, MSQI

Injury Free Coalition for Kids Board President
Forging New Frontiers: The Annual Conference of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, Program Chair
PI, Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Alabama
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Alabama
Division Director, Children's of Alabama Emergency Department

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the 29th Injury Free Coalition for Kids Annual Conference, Forging New Frontiers: Engineering for Equity. The Injury Free family has continued to grow innovative strategies for injury prevention in our children's hospitals and communities. Through the publication of our annual meeting supplement in Injury Epidemiology, we continue to share our work with others.

This year our focus on "Engineering for Equity" features a keynote session with Erin Mannen, Director of the Boise Applied Biomechanics of Infants Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. Her research focus is biomechanics, with particular interest in infant musculoskeletal development and safety of commercial baby products. In her lab, using electromyography sensors, motion capture technology and other testing devices developed by her team, Erin explores how babies move and use their muscles, and what that means for product development and safety. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission hired her as an independent expert to conduct infant testing to evaluate the design of inclined sleep products. She and her team discovered that none of the inclined sleep products evaluated were safe for infant sleep. Her report contributed to millions of recalls for infant sleep products across the country. A new standard for infant sleep products took effect in 2022 thanks in part to her research. Kids in Danger, an organization that advocates for product safety for children, presented their Best Friend Award to Erin “for her groundbreaking infant sleep research that has led to policy changes and saved lives.”

On Saturday morning, our panel on “Get Off Your Grass: Let’s Work Together to Prevent Pediatric Lawnmower Injuries” will feature Ryan Manahl (Father of Tate and Founder of Tate’s Army Foundation); Charles Jennissen (Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital, David and Levi Zima (Engineers with RF Laboratories, Inc.) and John Brooks (owner/CEO Little Feet Safety Systems). This panel will discuss the dangers of lawnmower injuries and future engineering solutions.

We are excited to present this year's Pioneer Award to Dr. Karen Sheehan to honor her successful career dedicated to injury prevention. Dr. Sheehan is an MD, MPH, and a Professor of Pediatrics, Medical Education, and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a founding volunteer of the Chicago Youth Programs, a community-based organization that works to improve the health and life opportunities of at-risk youth. She is also Associate Chair of Advocacy for the Department of Pediatrics and Medical Director of Lurie Children’s Injury Prevention & Research Center and the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities. The title of Dr. Sheehan’s keynote is “Looking Back/Forging Forward”. We are honored to hear her keynote presentation and to celebrate her lifetime commitment to injury prevention.

In addition to these exciting talks, we have added additional workshops this year. We also look forward to hearing all the amazing abstracts on work being done across the country to improve the lives of children.

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 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 the Walter Rice, DiLenny Roca-Dominguez, our co-program chair, Mike Levas and our Associate Director Dr. Danielle Laraque Arena for their hard work and dedication to Injury Free and their extensive knowledge, technical expertise, and experience in putting on this conference.

Many thanks to the National Injury Prevention Day Committee (DiLenny Roca-Dominguez, NPO and NIPD partners). Subcommittees (& chairs) of Injury Free that keep us connected all year long: the Social Media Subcommittee (Drs. Maneesha Agarwal (Atlanta, GA) and Kristyn Jeffries (Little Rock, AR), the Child Passenger Safety Committee (Adrienne Gallardo, Portland, OR), the Firearm Safety Committee (Drs. Kirsten Bechtel (New Haven, CT), Sandra McKay (Houston, TX), the Early Career Investigator Program (ECIP) (Dr. Ashley Blanchard, NYC), the Safe Sleep Subcommittee (Marybeth Vassey, Charleston, SC), the Awards Subcommittee (Dr. Steve Rogers (Hartford, CT), Lorrie Lynn (San Diego, CA) and DiLenny Roca-Dominquez (NPO). Introduced this year, the New PC Subcommittee supports new PCs professional growth and development (Founding Chair Mary Beth Vassy, Charleston, SC).

Thank you to the fabulous Garry Lapidus (Hartford, CT) for keeping our Drum Karaoke alive!

A special thanks to our fearless leader and founder, Dr. Barbara Barlow. Her dedication, wisdom, expertise, and inspiration help make this an exciting organization and conference every year. She continues to inspire, encourage, and challenge us to new heights of injury prevention.

This year, we mourned the passing of Lenita Johnson who served our organization above and beyond the call of duty for over 20 years. We will be honoring Lenita’s memory by presenting the inaugural Lenita Johnson Award.

Many thanks for attending YOUR conference. Please take advantage of the 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,