NEW YEAR + INTERNS (1/2/20 newsletter)

To celebrate the New Year, we are taking a look back at our 2nd Annual December Internship and celebrate our interns' contributions to Concussion Alliance and the world of concussion education, treatment, and care.

Editors: Conor Gormally and Malayka Gormally

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This December, our five interns:

Created a new alternate logo, along with designs for Concussion Alliance apparel that will be available soon on our website.

Interviewed three researchers at the cutting edge of their fields regarding concussion care and treatment. Look for blog posts on these interviews in the New Year:

Dr. Eve Valera and her research regarding cognitive and psychological function in women who've suffered brain injuries from Intimate Partner Violence.
Dr. Michael Hoffer, on his work as part of the research team running a 5-year clinical trial studying the efficacy of a cannabinoid-based pill to treat concussions.
Dr. Monica Vavilala and her team's research at Return to Learn Washington, creating a pilot Return-to-Learn program that she will implement and study in Washington State.

Created new and updated website pages for specific populations affected by concussions, so that Concussion Alliance can continue to provide information and assistance to as many people as possible. Our new Populations page links to the content created by the interns, which consists of:
- Our new page addressing how concussions affect women and girls, including the most up-to-date research on sex differences in concussions, new research on "invisible" concussion and TBI populations, such as intimate partner violence survivors, and resources and initiatives created for women and girls with concussions and their loved ones.
- Our new page addressing pediatric concussions in children and adolescents so that parents can better understand how concussions affect young people and have easy access to the best resources for parents.
- Our updated page addressing concussion in sports, which aims to help participants and their loved ones understand the risks in their sports and dispel misconceptions regarding injury and recovery. This page also contains resources for coaches and participants.We also integrated our page for Service Members and Veterans into this new design.

Our interns also:

Condensed and summarized the news and cutting-edge research on concussions for our Concussion Update Newsletter.
Created blog posts from articles in previous weekly newsletters to make our newsletter content more accessible and searchable for patients, caregivers, and medical professionals.

We would like to thank college interns Ben Preiss, Olivia Collis, Evie Kortanek, Trinh Tieu, and Kenta Hikino for their dedication and hard work this December. Thank you also to Jovan H. Johnson, Program Director of Experiential Learning Options at the Carleton College Career Center, for facilitating this internship program.