Executive Leadership and Expert Bios

Lara (Lace) DePadilla, PhD

Behavioral Scientist, Traumatic Brain Injury Team, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention

Areas of Expertise

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Surveillance
• Sports- and Recreation-Related TBI

Lara (Lace) DePadilla, PhD, is a Behavioral Scientist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team in the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention (DUIP) at the Injury Center. She currently works in the area of TBI, developing a national surveillance system with a specific focus on youth sports- and recreation-related TBIs. She is also responsible for the development of projects and scientific manuscripts addressing sports- and recreation-related TBI. She provides additional expertise for process and outcome evaluation projects and statistical analysis.

Dr. DePadilla received her bachelor of science degree in Sociology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and her master’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Georgia State University. She completed her PhD at Emory University, where she also served as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow and a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education. Dr. DePadilla has authored more than 20 publications and presentations.