Donald K. Routh Early-Career Award

The Routh Early-Career Award was given to Despina Stavrinos, Ph.D. This award recognizes significant contributions to the field of pediatric psychology in research, clinical training, and/or service during the early career. Stavrinos is an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a graduate student, she was the recipient of two SPP-sponsored awards: the Lizette-Peterson Homer Memorial Injury Research Grant Award and the first-ever recipient of the SPP/CDC Injury Prevention Student Research Award. She completed her postdoctoral training at the UAB’s University Transportation Center and Injury Control Research Center. Stavrinos’ work addresses applied transportation issues from a pediatric behavioral science perspective. This work advances the understanding of how development influences basic psychological processes of attention, executive function, and cognition and how they impact real-world problems such as motor vehicle crash risk among young drivers. Current projects include examination of driving attention development across adolescence and evaluation of driving among young individuals with autism spectrum disorders and ADHD. Her work has been funded by various federal agencies including NIH, CDC, and U.S. Department of Transportation.