SAVIR Member Spotlight: Katherine (Katie) J. Harmon, MPH, PhD

My entry into injury and violence prevention truly happened “on the job.” My undergraduate and graduate education was in environmental and occupational health. As part of my master’s work, I worked on a project centered on lead poisoning prevention. I was able to leverage this experience into a CDC/Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Applied Epidemiology Fellowship during which I was based at the North Carolina Division of Public Health doing primarily drug poisoning prevention. Totally the same, right? Not at all. However, I learned a lot during my fellowship, including that injury and violence prevention is a cornerstone of public health, and an underrecognized and under-resourced discipline, despite being the leading cause of death among Americans 1-44 years-of-age. Therefore, I obtained a PhD in Epidemiology from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health to expand my knowledge base, completing my dissertation on pediatric traumatic brain injury surveillance in 2018. Today, most of my work focuses on applying public health surveillance methods for injury and violence prevention purposes, with an emphasis on roadway injuries and fatalities.

How long have you been a member of SAVIR? What has been your favorite part about being involved with SAVIR?

I have been a member of SAVIR for more than 10 years, but until recently, my involvement was limited to attending the annual conference. A little over a year ago, I became involved with the Science, Research, Training & Infrastructure Committee. It’s been rewarding to become involved with developing the scientific program for the annual conference – the quality and breadth of the submitted research has grown so much in recent years. I cannot wait to attend the 2025 conference in NYC – I think it will be the best one yet!

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career so far?

One of the benefits of working in traffic safety is the interdisciplinary nature of the research. On a given day, I get the opportunity to work with urban planners, engineers, behavioral scientists, physicians, communications specialists, graphic designers, and students, as well as fellow injury epidemiologists. Recently, I have become engaged in more community-centered research through partnering with North Carolina Vision Zero communities. More specifically, I am part of a North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program-funded project to expand data access through the development and dissemination of a Health Outcomes Dashboard (https://ncvisionzero.org/visualizations/health-outcomes-dashboard/). While many of these communities are familiar with using police-reported crash data, my team is encouraging the use of health outcomes data (EMS, emergency department data) for problem identification and program/policy evaluation.

What do you like to do in your free time?

My partner and I are frequent national and international travelers. One of our favorite ways to visit a new place is on foot, especially in Europe where it is relatively easy to walk from town to town. We have completed the Camino Finisterre in Spain and walked a section of the GR34 in France (from Mont-Saint-Michel to Dinard). This coming summer, we are training to walk part of the GR10 in the Pyrenees. Since daily elevation gain will reach up to 5,000 feet, it is going to be quite a challenge!