Brain Power: Mitigating Injury Risks and Empowering Personal Growth
About the talk
Dr. Kim Gorgens reframes our understanding of brain injury by connecting with often-overlooked populations. Reaching millions of viewers through inspiring TED talks on youth sports concussion and brain injuries in criminal justice, Dr. Gorgens has appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper, NPR and 20/20. A professor of psychology at University of Denver, she manages a large portfolio of brain injury related research and has lectured extensively around the world. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including U.S. News, Newsweek, The Economist, and more.
SPONSORED BY SHANNON AND DAVID CASH
Researchers estimate at least 50 percent of people in the criminal justice system have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Through her collaboration with Marchell Taylor, Dr. Gorgens helped pass a Colorado bill to fund a pilot program that provides TBI screenings and targeted therapy to prison inmates.
“It’s not that brain injury causes incarceration," she explains. "But for people with vulnerable brains, if they sustain a brain injury, the risk is much higher for poor outcomes, including incarceration.” Her team administered at TBI screening to Taylor while he awaited trial for robbery. “It transformed my thinking and my life forever,” he says of that experience, describing her as “our Wonder Woman of brain science.”
Dr. Gorgens' TBI assessment has become part of a groundbreaking Colorado Brain Injury Model, now being applied in criminal justice efforts in more than two dozen states. She emphasizes this is not a free pass, but a pathway to self-agency. “It’s about accountability,” she says. “We give someone strategies and a way of thinking about their behavior as fixable.”