Dr. Terri deRoon-Cassini Named Director of the Comprehensive Injury Center

Terri A. deRoon-Cassini, PhD, MS, associate professor of surgery (Trauma and Acute Care Surgery), has been named director of the MCW Comprehensive Injury Center (CIC), effective August 1, 2020. She will succeed Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH, professor of emergency medicine and associate dean for global health, who is stepping down as director of the CIC (from 1998-2018, known as the Injury Research Center) since 2001.

Dr. deRoon-Cassini holds secondary appointments with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and the Institute for Health & Equity, and is an affiliate faculty member with the CIC for which she co-leads the research core. She received her Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in clinical psychology from Marquette University and completed her internship at the Zablocki VA Medical Center with an emphasis on health psychology and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after combat trauma. Dr. deRoon-Cassini completed her postdoctoral clinical and research training at MCW, with an emphasis in trauma and health psychology and a research agenda related to the quality of life of trauma patients.

Currently, Dr. deRoon-Cassini is the director of the Trauma Psychology program that provides psychological assessment and intervention to survivors of traumatic experiences likely to suffer such diagnoses as PTSD. This care is provided in a multidisciplinary integrative fashion for the level 1 trauma center at Froedtert Hospital. She leads research in the Trauma Division, with her own research having a focus on neurological, biological and psychosocial risk markers for PTSD, which has been funded internally as well as externally from the NIH. Dr. deRoon-Cassini also co-founded and co-directs the Milwaukee Trauma Outcomes Project, a city-wide research collaborative of basic, translational, and clinical researchers related to outcomes and health disparities within trauma exposed individuals. Her academic contributions have focused on understanding how to define risk for poor psychological outcomes after trauma and implementation of secondary prevention interventions to mitigate that risk.

The CIC, which was established in 1998 as the Injury Research Center, was designated as an MCW “Blue Center” in February 2018 and relaunched as the Comprehensive Injury Center. As a Blue Center director, Dr. deRoon-Cassini will receive an ex officio seat at the Executive Committee of the Faculty. The CIC provides MCW with a platform from which to build and expand its current success in injury-related research efforts as well as to engage campus and community partners in the advancement of injury control and prevention science.

In her new role, Dr. deRoon-Cassini will is responsible for the CIC’s budget, strategic priorities, the recruitment, retention, mentorship and career advancement of faculty, and for cultivating and sustaining a culture of inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and collegiality.

Thank you to Dr. Hargarten for his distinguished leadership at the CIC and congratulations to Dr. deRoon-Cassini on her new role as director of the CIC.