Prevention: Legislative Champions

The summer brings news that two legislators who have been champions for prevention legislation are moving on...

In New York, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, who sponsored a bill calling for education for new parents in 2000 and who played an important role in securing funding for the expansion of the program developed by Mark Dias at Children's Hospital of Buffalo into the Upstate New York SBS Prevention Program, left the Assembly in July, after 19 years of service, to become Senior Vice President for Regional Economic Development at the Empire State Development Corporation.

In Virginia, Representative Glenn Oder is leaving Virginia's House of Delegates to become the new executive director of the Fort Monroe Authority. HCR 632, a legislative bill introduced by Rep. Oder in 2010 at the request of Steve Stowe and Shaken Baby Syndrome of Virginia, Inc., directed Virginia's Joint Commission on Health Care to study the costs of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) and identify best practices in reducing the incidence of SBS in Virginia.

Thanks to both for their efforts on behalf of preventing SBS.

We'll be needing some replacements...nominations, anyone?