Annual Seminar for Professionals

Save the Date! May 6, 2026

The Palace at Somerset Park, Somerset, NJ

BIANJ’s Annual Professional Seminar offers an educational and networking opportunity for professionals to gain knowledge of the latest research, best practices and effective strategies for working with individuals affected by brain injury. The knowledge level of the audience varies, including both new and experienced professionals.

The seminar is a full-day conference consisting of a keynote presentation followed by three workshop blocks with three presentations in each block. Lunch will be served and organization exhibitors and student poster presentations will also be included.

2026 Annual Professional Seminar Call for Proposals:

• Workshops: We invite you to submit a proposal to present a workshop. Proposals typically focus on research, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation or public health related to working with individuals affected by brain injury. Workshops should contribute to participants’ knowledge base, understanding of best practices and strategies that can be used in their work. We encourage you to consider making your workshop interactive if possible, and to share available resources.
  Submissions due November 10, 2025.
• Request for Proposals for Student Posters coming soon. Posters typically focus on research, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and public health issues related to individuals affected by brain injury. All accepted posters will be displayed at this year’s Annual Professional Seminar.

Kristy B. Arbogast, Ph.D

2025 Keynote Address

“Opportunities for Reducing the Effects of Concussion Across the Prevention Spectrum”

Kristy B. Arbogast, Ph.D.

The presentation discussed the spectrum of prevention on concussion – from primary prevention through protective equipment, secondary prevention through accurate and timely diagnosis and tertiary prevention through effective treatments.  Various mechanisms of injury will be highlighted including sports-related injuries as well as those injuries sustained in motor vehicle crashes.  Existing inequities across various sociodemographic groups will be discussed, including strategies to mitigate those disparities.

Kristy Arbogast, PhD, is the Scientific Director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Co-Director of the Minds Matter Concussion Frontier Program at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the R. Anderson Pew Endowed Chair and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. As a bioengineer, her research focuses on injury biomechanics and the effectiveness of safety products concentrating on the protection of youth in motor vehicle crashes and pediatric concussion. Dr. Arbogast’s concussion research focuses on the use of head impact sensors to understand the biomechanics and bioengineering technology for objective measures of diagnosis and monitoring. She has established rigorous methods of data collection and processing to quantify repetitive head impacts across multiple sports in male and female youth, leading a consensus conference on the topic, from which best practices have been published. In parallel work, she serves a leadership role on the NFL Engineering Committee, interpreting multiple data streams for mitigation of head injuries through improved equipment, rules of the game and playing technique. Dr. Arbogast is funded by NIH, CDC and DOD to study objective measures of neurofunction in concussed youth and strategies for optimizing concussion care.

Past Seminars

• 2025: Enhancing Understanding Across the Brain Injury Spectrum
• 2024: Bridging the Disparity Gap: Improving Equity in Brain Injury Care and Prevention
• 2023: Uncovering the Invisible: Uncovering the Silent Epidemic of Brain Injury
• 2022: Building Community and Enhancing Quality of Life After Brain Injury
• 2021: Exploring and Navigating the Scope and Diversity of Brain Injury
• 2020: A 2020 Perspective: Improving TBI Outcomes in the Next Decade
• 2019: Moving Forward in Brain Injury: Evidence in Action
• 2018: Exploring Diverse Issues in Brain Injury
• 2017: Making New Connections Following Brain Injury
• 2016: Achieving Meaningful Outcomes