Burlington native and resident Nat T. Harris has joined the Advisory Board of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Harris is the founding partner of Harris, Crouch, Long, Scott & Miller Inc., which specializes in the design of non-qualified benefits for executives and directors of large companies, both public and private. He is a member of the corporate boards of directors of Copland Inc. and Delta Marketing, and is a past board member with the Burlington YMCA, the N.C. Zoological Society, Burlington Day School and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Foundation.
Currently, he serves as wildlife commissioner for North Carolina’s District 5 and works to involve area youth in active lifestyles focused on outdoors and wildlife-related activities. He is a member of the Bow Hunters Association, N.C. Handicapped Sportsmen and the N.C. Ducks Unlimited Hall of Fame, and is a life sponsor of the Quail Unlimited Founders’ Club.
The Childress Institute is dedicated to understanding and treating life-threatening injuries to children. Its goal is to save lives and to help kids affected by these injuries recover to lead a more normal life. The Institute was founded in 2008 by NASCAR team owner Richard Childress and his wife, Judy, at Wake Forest Baptist. Each year, serious injuries claim the lives of more than 12,000 children in the United States – more than all other causes combined. The Institute seeks to change this situation through research, education and advocacy.
Recent projects involving the Childress Institute include:
- Using a three-year, $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate the effectiveness of Pediatric Emergency Care Recognition Programs on the care of injured children. The project aims to improve the design of emergency care systems and make them more effective in treating injured children.
- Collaborating on the HITS (Head Impact Telemetry System) Program with the Center for Injury Biomechanics at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. The program will use devices installed in the football helmets of Wake Forest University players to better understand concussions and other brain injuries.
- Partnering with community colleges and EMS educational institutions across North Carolina to expand the training of first responders to help them care for children who have suffered traumatic injuries. The Institute buys or offsets the cost of textbooks, instructional materials and instructor salaries, and helps put training in place where it’s needed. The state program is serving as a model for possible use nationwide.
For more information, visit www.childresspediatrictrauma.org.
Media Relations
Eric Whittington: ewhittin@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-5318