Deb Houry, Emory University, Director
dhoury@emory.edu
[-bio-]
Debra Houry, MD, MPH, is Vice-Chair for Research and Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and in the Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education and Department of Environmental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health. She is the Director of the Emory Center for Injury Control and PI on the CDC Injury Control Research Center grant (1 of 11 nationally). Dr. Houry is also the chair of the Emory University Senate Committee on Safety. Dr. Houry has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on injury prevention and violence. She has been the recipient of several national awards, including the Jay Drotman Award, given annually by the American Public Health Association for the most outstanding young public health professional in the country and the first Linda Saltzman Memorial Intimate Partner Violence Researcher Award from the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma. She serves as Treasurer for the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research and is the President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Shakiyla Smith, Emory University, Deputy Director
lrsmit3@emory.edu
[-bio-]
Ms. Shakiyla Smith is the Deputy Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. In addition to her duties as Deputy Director, Ms. Smith manages several clinical and behavioral research studies in the Department of Emergency Medicine, including a study examining the effects of computer-based screening for intimate partner violence victimization in three urban emergency departments and the feasibility and effectiveness of early psychological intervention with recent trauma victims in the emergency department for the prevention of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Prior to joining Emory, she completed a two year fellowship at NCIPC's Division of Violence Prevention focused on youth violence prevention program evaluation and violence against women research. She also conducted primary research on exposure to community violence. Ms. Smith also has experience as a grant writer and organizational development consultant to non-profit organizations in the Philadelphia region where she raised more than $1 million in government, corporate, and private funding.

Natasha Southworth MPH, Emory University, Sr. Research Project Coordinator
nobolen@emory.edu
[-bio-]
Natasha Southworth is a Senior Research Project Coordinator in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. Natasha provides administrative support to the Emory Center for Injury Control (ECIC) and its faculty and leadership in the development and implementation of various violence and injury-related research projects and programs. She is responsible for preparing and distributing the ECIC’s quarterly newsletter, supervising ECIC Graduate Research Assistants, maintaining the ECIC’s library, and providing written support for faculty grant submissions and literature reviews. Prior to joining the School of Medicine, Natasha completed her Masters with the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in the Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education. Natasha has been involved with injury and violence prevention in her volunteer work for several years as well as in her coursework: evaluating a Safe Kids of DeKalb Program, creating curriculums and developing programs aimed at preventing sexual abuse and coping with intimate partner violence.

Lee Helmken MPH, Emory University, Project Coordinator
lhelmke@emory.edu

Monica Swahn, Georgia State University, Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development
mswahn@gsu.edu
[-bio-]
Monica Swahn is an associate professor in the Institute of Public Health and the Partnership for Urban Health Research, Georgia State University. She was recently appointed as Associate Dean for Research for the university's College of Health and Human Sciences. She has published 30 publications related to youth violence, suicide and substance use prevention. Prior to joining the Institute, Dr. Swahn worked for the CDC for nine years. She was the Principal Investigator for the Youth Violence Survey which was administered to over 4,000 high school students and designed to assess the overlap among different forms of violent behaviors and she also served as the scientific officer (consultant) for many CDC funded cooperative agreements and grants including three Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention.In 2006, Dr. Swahn was awarded the prestigious Dixie Snider fellowship in the Office of the Chief Science Officer, CDC.During this fellowship, Dr. Swahn contributed to agency-wide strategic goal and research priority planning and facilitated the preparation and implementation of new research objectives. She also provided assistance and consultations to scientific regulatory services and prepared measures, initiatives, and fiscal year targets for an internal organizational excellence management assessment tool.

Vickie Howard, Emory University, Administrative Assistant
vhoward@emory.edu

Sheryl Heron, Emory University, Associate Director of Education & Training
sheron@emory.edu
[-bio-]
Dr. Sheryl Heron, MD, MPH, FACEP is an Associate Professor and Associate Residency Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine, the Assistant Dean for Medical Education and Student Affairs on the Grady Campus and Associate Director of Education and Training for the Center for Injury Control at Emory University. She is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine. She is a Board member for the Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence, a member of the Domestic Violence Task Force in Dekalb County, and the Public Health Committee of the American College of Emergency Physician’s (ACEP). She has worked with the Institute of Medicine on a report on educating health professionals on Family Violence. She is a Past Chair of the Emergency Medicine Section of the National Medical Association. She has received several awards including the Partnership against Domestic Violence’s HOPE Award, the Woman in Medicine Award from the Council of Concerned Women of the National Medical Association, the Gender Justice Award from the Commission on Family Violence and was named a hero of Emergency Medicine by ACEP. Dr. Heron has lectured extensively on the medical response to Intimate Partner Violence, as well as Wellness/Work-Life Balance and Diversity/Disparate Care in Emergency Medicine.

Lisa Dawson MPH, Georgia Department of Community Health, Injury Prevention Section, Co-Associate Director of Outreach
lddawson@dhr.state.ga.us
[-bio-]
Lisa Dawson is Director of the Office of Injury Prevention within the Georgia Department of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health Program. Lisa has worked in public health and the injury prevention field for more than 17 years. Her roles at the state level include active participation in the Child Fatality Review, active participation in both NHTSA sponsored activities, the Traffic Records Coordinating Committee and Georgia CODES project, she holds a gubernatorial appointment as a Commissioner to the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund, is an Advisory Member for Domestic Violence Prevention Project Connect Program, a former member of the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Georgia and member of SAFE KIDS Georgia. She was among the first certified child passenger safety technician instructors in Georgia.

James Griffin, Morehouse School of Medicine, Co-Associate Director of Outreach
jgriffin@msm.edu
[-bio-]
James P. Griffin, Jr., PhD has been involved in behavioral health promotion, training, education, and research for thirty years. He has an earned doctorate in psychology with specialized training in behavior modification, school psychology, and community/organizational psychology. The last sixteen years of his career have focused on the prevention of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug and violence prevention. Dr. Griffin is faculty at the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Griffin has directed a school-wide violence prevention program in a Metropolitan Atlanta public school as part of a six-university, Hamilton-Fish national consortium at George Washington University. Additionally, for the past five years he has served as the principal investigator for the Imani Project through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He is presently principal investigator for the Atlanta Violence Prevention Capacity Building Project (ACBP). He has acted as the convener for a six-county initiative, the Metropolitan Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership (MAVPP), since October, 2005.

Scott Sasser, Emory University, Associate Director of International Programs
ssasser@emory.edu
[-bio-]
Scott Sasser, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine , Emory University School of Medicine and in the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Sasser is the Associate Director for International Programs for the Center for Injury Control, works as a consultant in the Division of Injury Response, in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and directs the department's International Health Fellowship. Dr. Sasser was the lead editor on the World Health Organization's (WHO) publication Prehospital Trauma Care Systems, a monograph designed to assist decision-makers in low and middle income countries develop basic prehospital trauma care systems; as an extension of this project, he currently sits on the WHO Trauma and Emergency Care Advisory Committee. Dr. Sasser is currently involved in projects in Kenya, Rwanda, and India, and is currently the recipient of funding from the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health to provide injury focused public health training to physicians in Mozambique and from the United States Agency for International Development to develop emergency medicine and emergency medical services in the Republic of Georgia.

Arthur Kellermann, RAND Corporation, Director Emeritus
Arthur_Kellermann@rand.org
[-bio-]
Dr. Arthur Kellermann directs RAND's Public Health and Preparedness Initiative. Before joining RAND, he was a professor of emergency medicine and public health and served as associate dean for health policy at the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta. Kellermann founded Emory's Department of Emergency Medicine and served as its first chair from 1999 to 2007. He established the Emory Center for Injury Control, and holds “excellence in science” awards from two organizations: the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of the American Public Health Association. A two-term member of the board of directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Kellermann was subsequently given the College's highest award for leadership. Elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Kellermann co-chaired the IOM Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance, which issued six reports on this topic between 2001 and 2004. He also served on the IOM's Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health System and the Committee on Effectiveness of National Biosurveillance Systems: BioWatch and the Public Health System. As a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow (2006-07) Kellermann worked for the professional staff of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives. A clinician and researcher, he practiced and taught emergency medicine for more than 25 years in public teaching hospitals in Seattle, Washington; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Sue Binder MD, Emory University, External Advisory Committee Chair
scbinder@bellsouth.net
[-bio-]
Dr. Sue Binder is an expert in the practice of public health, with broad experience in public health research and programs related to environmental health, infectious diseases, unintentional injuries and violence, and developmental disabilities, both in the United States and internationally. Based in Atlanta, she is currently working with the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Emory University and is Chair of the Emory Center for Injury Control External Advisory Committee. Trained as a physician and board certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. Binder served 20 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, before retiring in 2004. While at the CDC, Dr. Binder held a number of leadership positions in environmental health, infectious diseases, and injury prevention and control. Her accomplishments include developing and overseeing CDC’s childhood lead poisoning prevention program, spearheading the development of CDC’s strategy for preventing emerging infectious diseases, and directing the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Dr. Binder has received numerous awards, including CDC’s highest honor, the William C. Watson Medal of Excellence.