On Friday, February 5, 2016, MomsTEAM Institute Executive Director Brooke de Lench and Senior Editor and Director of Research Lindsey Barton Straus accepted the award of an NCAA-Department of Defense Mind Matters Challenge education grant during a luncheon at the NCAA national headquarters in Indianapolis.  

MomsTEAM and the other five winners of education grants recognized by the NCAA and Department of Defense were joined at the ceremony by eight winners of the NCAA-DoD Mind Matters Research Challenge, each of which will receive a $400,000 award to fund research designed to improve the understanding of how to spur changes in the culture surrounding concussion drawn from a field of 22 finalists announced in July 2015. (to learn more about the research challenge winners, click here) 

A joint NCAA-DOD initiative announced in November 2014, the Mind Matters Challenge includes $7 million in funding focuses on two important areas related to concussion: Changing Attitudes about Concussions in Young and Emerging Adults (a research challenge); and Educational Programs Targeting Young and Emerging Adults (an educational programs challenge).

The day-long event included an afternoon session in which de Lench and representatives of the other 13 winners made 5 minute PowerPoint presentations and answered questions about their projects.

With the grant funds MomsTEAM is creating a multi-media concussion education intervention designed to create an environment in which student-athletes are not penalized, ostracized, or criticized for honestly reporting their own concussion symptoms as well as those of teammates but are actually encouraged to do so.