Let's Connect
Virtual Professional Consultations and Collaborations
Let’s Connect is a free consultation and mentoring service for injury professionals and trainees to connect with faculty and senior staff in the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH. Injury professionals and students are often looking for a coach, mentor, or consultation outside of their institution. Let’s Connect provides an opportunity for them to connect via phone or Zoom with CIRP faculty and senior staff as part of the Center's professional mentoring and collaboration process.
Our Principal Investigators and senior staff are available to discuss a variety of topics including child injury prevention, health communication, home safety, sports injuries, trauma, and teen driving. To connect with one of them, simply click the blue button below their bio to send them an email with your question(s) or to set up a virtual consultation.
Dr. Leonard is a Professor of Pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is a board-certified pediatric emergency medicine subspecialist and practices medicine in the emergency department at Nationwide Children's Hospital. At the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, she serves as the Director of Clinical Research for the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Associate Director for the Center for Pediatric Trauma Research. Over the course of her career, she has developed expertise in the emergency management of injured children. She has published extensively in cervical spine injury management and is the recent recipient of an NIH grant aimed at laying the groundwork for the development and implementation of Pediatric Cervical Spine Injury Risk Assessment Tool that will be for use by both prehospital and emergency department providers. She is also a research collaborator in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) where she serves as the Emergency Medical Services Scientific Advisor and Co-Principal Investigator of the Great Lakes Emergency Medical Services for Children Research Node (GLEMSCRN). Dr. Leonard currently serves as the Program Director for the State of Ohio Emergency Medical Services for Children Advisory Committee.
Dr. McKenzie is a Principal Investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine and the Division of Epidemiology, College of Public Health at The Ohio State University. Dr. McKenzie's research program focuses on how to increase adoption of parent safety behaviors such as the use of carbon monoxide alarms, smoke alarms, child safety seats and booster seats to prevent and/or reduce the consequences of childhood injuries. Dr. McKenzie's research also focuses on injuries associated with consumer products and sports and activity-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments. Dr. McKenzie has experience in mobile app development and evaluation of injury prevention interventions including the Make Safe Happen® app.
Ms. Mehan leads the Translational Research team for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In this role, she trains others how to effectively communicate public health information. This includes teaching others how to identify and reach their audience, create effective communication messages and materials, and prepare for and execute media interviews about their research. She works both behind the scenes to formulate strategic media outreach plans for the center and in front of the camera appearing in both national media such as The Today Show and the New York Times and local outlets.
Nichole L. Michaels, PhD, is a Principal Investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Michaels’ primary research interests include: identifying and evaluating practices for drug overdose harm reduction and the treatment of individuals with substance use disorders; developing prevention strategies for child abuse and neglect; and understanding the links between substance use disorders and child maltreatment. She is also active in public policy, and is a strong advocate for legislation to prevent gun violence in the US.
Dr. Smith’s research and advocacy focus on the epidemiology and prevention of pediatric and adolescent injuries, including consumer product-related injuries and motor vehicle-related injuries. Recent studies also include the investigation of parent-voice versus conventional tone residential smoke alarms to awaken children and pediatric poisoning. Dr. Smith has been a contributor to the field of injury, especially through research that informs public policy, for more than 35 years.
Dr. Xiang is a Professor of Medicine at the Ohio State University College of Medicine with a strong interest, funding and publication record in pediatric trauma and burn care research. He serves as the founding Director of the Center for Pediatric Trauma Research and Research Director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Xiang is also the Director for Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies Program in the OSU Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. Xiang is a national and international leader with a strong record in leading funded research projects as the principal investigator (PI), publishing more than 200 original injury and trauma research articles in top tier medical journals, and many national and international awards for his achievements in injury and trauma research work around the world.
Dr. Yang is a Professor of Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine. Dr. Yang’s primary research interest is injury prevention with an emphasis on injuries to children and adolescents. Her current research, primarily funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), focuses on sports-related injuries including sports-related mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) among children, as well as parent-based interventions to improve safe driving behaviors of teens.
Dr. Zhu is a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University College of Medicine. With doctoral training in epidemiology and medicine, and active research for about 20 years, Dr. Zhu is well versed in travel behaviors, transportation injuries, and opioid and marijuana abuse. He has received multiple NIH, CDC, and state grants to conduct research in cellphone use while driving, teen driving, traffic policy, and opioid use disorders. He has published in a number of high impact journals, including JAMA, Epidemiology and Journal of Adolescent Health, as well as notable journals in the injury field, such as Injury Prevention and Accident Analysis and Prevention. He has been an editorial board member for the journals Injury Prevention and Injury Epidemiology. He has been the research coordinator for the Vehicle User Education, Training, and Licensing Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.