Trainees and early career researchers connect and take home top prizes at SAVIR 2026
Thank you to everyone who connected with the Penn Injury Science Center at SAVIR 2026! The trainee community at Penn was radiant at the annual injury and violence prevention conference – from posters, to oral presentations, to a family-style lunch in downtown...
Parent and adolescent perceptions on technology to reduce distracted driving
A recent publication from a core project of the Penn Injury Science Center explored how parents and adolescents perceive cellphone-based technologies designed to reduce distracted driving. Interviews with adolescent-parent dyads found that while these technologies can...
Guns, Crashes, and Children – Shaping a Safer Future Over the Next 15 Years
A new study reveals U.S. children are facing worsening mortality and chronic health challenges compared to peers in other high-income countries. Between 2001–2019, there were more than 315,000 excess child and adolescent deaths in the U.S., with firearm violence,...
Cheryl Bettigole, MD, MPH, MA
Dr. Cheryl Bettigole served as the Health Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia from 2021-2024 and recently joined the University of Pennsylvania as a Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and Community Health. At Penn, she is working on developing collaborative...
Smartphone Feedback to Encourage Safe Driving
A randomized field trial tested whether smartphone-based feedback with personalized goals can promote safer driving behavior compared to standard insurance messaging. The study, led by Jeff Ebert with co-authors Kate McDonald and Kit Delgado,contributes to growing...
Study Finds Shared Incentive Increases Seat Belt Use
A new study led by Jeffrey Ebert, with coauthors Kit Delgado and Kate McDonald, tested scalable behavioral interventions to increase seat belt use and reduce distracted driving. The national randomized trial found that a shared incentive—where participants earned an...
‘Daring’ to Succeed in Automotive Safety
In this Q&A, meet Valentina Graci, PhD, a researcher in the Center for Injury Research and Prevention and leader of the Sled Laboratory for Automotive Safety and Rehabilitation Biomechanics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. She explains...
Valentina Graci, PhD
Dr. Graci is an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health System at Drexel University and at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She is the Inaugural...