03/20/2022

SAVIR Member Spotlight

Kathleen F. Carlson, M.S., Ph.D.

Kathleen F. Carlson, M.S., Ph.D.

Core Investigator, HSR&D Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC), Director, HSR&D CIVIC Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, VA Portland Health Care System (R&D 66)

Treasurer of SAVIR

• Tell us about your areas of interest within injury and violence prevention. Why did you decide to pursue a career in this field?

I was introduced to our field by my grad school advisor, Dr. Susan Gerberich, who has an infectious passion for all-things injury, and is someone I would do anything to try to make proud. Still, I love everything about public health more broadly and it wasn’t until a joint SAVIR-Safe States (and maybe NCIPC) meeting in Denver, in 2005, when I found myself thinking ‘these are my people’ and I knew I would be remiss to go in any other direction (I still remember that ‘a-ha’ moment!). I found a career in the VA studying traumatic brain injury among Veterans but have also been able to work in children’s injury prevention, motor vehicle safety, overdose prevention, occupational injury, and suicide prevention. More recently, I have been focusing a lot of my time on firearm injury and gun violence prevention, leading studies focused on veterans’ safety as well as the epidemiology and prevention of gun violence in Oregon.

• How long have you been a member of SAVIR? What has been your favorite part about being involved on the SAVIR board?

 I have been a member on and off since I was a student in the early 2000s. I got involved more recently – in 2015 – as a member of the Training and Infrastructure Committee, then the Conference Planning Committee, and now the Board. Hands-down, my favorite parts of SAVIR are my amazing colleagues and the opportunity to nurture early career professionals – I love working with kindred spirits who are passionate about making the world safer and more equitable! Being on the board gives me the opportunity to help ensure the health and longevity of our organization and the legacy of those who worked to bring us together and to build our field.

• Tell me a little about your involvement in SAVIR’s mentoring program. What was rewarding about your experience?

Getting involved in SAVIR’s mentoring program was, initially, just something to do to support our early career members. But my participation quickly became so much more! I have enjoyed working with my co-mentor, Joel Fein, and our group of mentees – all of them offer so much for me to learn and to think about and to grow as well! We have been meeting with the same group of mentees for several years now and it is so very rewarding to see everyone flourishing and forging their own paths in injury and violence.

• What do you like to do in your free time?

 I have two young kids and, until recently, would say I have no hobbies – just trying to keep the kids alive, my household intact, and my career in motion. My spouse and I also went through the illnesses and then losses of our parents and grandparents, which consumed so much of everything. In the last couple of years, with the kids a little older now, I feel like I’ve been able to come out of ‘survival mode’ and pursue some fun hobbies that are my own. The most unique may be mushrooming – I grew up finding culinary mushrooms with my mom and I have reignited that passion in memory of her and also as a way to get out from in front of the computer. I love the Oregon forests and find it so fun to be outside in the vast and quiet woods searching for treasures.