Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital

Site PI: Kent P. Hymel, MD

Kent Hymel founded and directs the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network (PediBIRN), a collaborative network of child abuse and pediatric intensive care investigators who are working to develop and disseminate an evidence-based screening tool for pediatric abusive head trauma. He completed his fellowship training in Child Abuse Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital, Denver, Colorado, and has directed child abuse teams at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children and at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Kent serves as the CAPNET site PI at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and is firmly committed to its mission to create and grow infrastructure for child maltreatment research. He can be reached at khymel@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

Site Coordinator: Ashley Bucher, MPH

Ashley Bucher is a research project manager for the Center for the Protection of Children at Penn State College of Medicine. She works closely with the Center’s Principal Investigators in developing and conducting new and ongoing research projects. She has held several research positions outside of child abuse pediatrics, including in the fields of cardiology and end-of-life care. She enjoys working closely with families and children in her current role. Ashley can be reached at abucher2@pennstatehealth.psu.edu