2024 Fall Edition
Chair’s Welcome to 2024
By: Angelle Sander, Ph.D., FACRM
It is hard to believe that my two years as Chair of the BI-ISIG are coming to an end. These years have been filled with professional collaborations, friendships, and accomplishments beyond what I imagined. I am so very proud of the multiple success stories from our ISIG, including the publication of a new diagnostic criteria for mild TBI (Mild TBI Task Force), the publication of the 2nd Cognitive Rehabilitation Manual and Textbook (Cog Rehab Task Force), the publication of multiple Individualized Education Pages (Chronic Brain Injury Task Force), partnerships with the American Congress of Surgeons for TBI Best Practice Guidelines and on two new trauma standards on rehabilitation (DOC Task Force), the development and launch of the Pediatric Cognitive Rehabilitation Training Program (Pediatric and Adolescent Task Force in collaboration with Cognitive Rehabilitation Task Force), and innovative work on assessment of inter-partner violence (Girls and Women With TBI Task Force). These are just the tip of the iceberg of all that our task forces have accomplished over the past two years, and I offer my sincere gratitude and respect for the leaders of these Task Forces and all of the members who give generously of their time and talents to improve our ability to help individuals with brain injury to live the lives that they desire.
We have also witnessed the inauguration of two new Task Forces. The Culture and Diversity Task Force, chaired by Patricia Garcia and Devan Parrot, have exciting projects underway to address inclusion of underserved groups in research, and they will be sharing their work in symposiums at the annual conference. Our Neurobehavioral Task Force, chaired by Chris Falco and Dave Arciniegas, launched this summer and we look forward to supporting their mission of establishing best practices for the treatment of individuals demonstrating challenging behaviors following brain injury.
It has been my pleasure to serve ACRM alongside the other members of the BI-ISIG Executive Committee, who bring their best ideas and efforts to support the organization. Under the current BI-ISIG leadership, we have been able to continue the tradition of awarding grants to facilitate the work of our task forces, and we continue to award travel scholarships to early career members and to individuals with lived experience, so that they can benefit from attending the conference to collaborate within their chosen task forces and grow in their leadership skills. During the past two years, the BI-ISIG Executive Committee has solidified its commitment to encouraging diversity, involving individuals with lived experience, and mentoring the next generation of researchers and clinicians. I look forward to continuing to help advise them in sustaining these important goals in my next role as Past Chair.
We have an exciting BI-ISIG program for the annual conference, and I am looking forward to seeing you all at the conference and at our annual BI-ISIG Summit that is being held there!
With Gratitude,
Angelle Sander, Ph.D., FACRM
