Dedication to brain injury awareness prompted East Greenwich’s Katie Cioe to chair the Brain Injury Association of RI

CAPTION: From left, Debra Sharpe, executive director of the Brain Injury Association of Rhode Island, poses with East Greenwich’s Nicholas Cioe, BIARI board member, and Katie Cioe, chair of the committee planning the Keep Your Head Up 5K Walk on Saturday, May 20, at Colt State Park. The Brain Injury Association of RI, based in East Providence, will benefit from the event.

Dedication to brain injury awareness prompted East Greenwich’s Katie Cioe

to chair the Brain Injury Association of Rhode Island’s 5K Walk in May

EAST PROVIDENCE – Even with her hands full raising three children and working full time as a high school English teacher in Coventry, East Greenwich’s Katie Cioe has taken on the lofty task of chairing the upcoming 5K Walk for the Brain Injury Association of Rhode Island (BIARI). The Keep Your Head Up 5K Walk will be on Saturday, May 20, at Colt State Park (registration begins at 9 a.m. and the Walk starts at 10 a.m.) Tickets are $25/$35 day of.

She has taken on this important role because several members of her family and some of her students have been coping with the consequences of a traumatic brain injury. “I have seen how they have been affected and struggled. That is why the Brain Injury Association of Rhode Island is important to our state,” Cioe said. “Through the nonprofit’s work, it has made me passionate about the imperative need to increase awareness so people with such an injury can learn how to cope with it and improve the quality of their life.”

She added that she has been impressed with the dedication BIARI has made to prevention, education and support for survivors, their families and caregivers. She discovered BIARI after her husband, Nicholas Cioe, joined the board of directors. He is a professor of rehabilitative counseling at Assumption College in Worcester.

Since BIARI was founded in 1983, the nonprofit has greatly expanded its services for the care and rehabilitation of Rhode Islanders who have sustained a brain injury. Today, BIARI, located at 1017 Waterman Ave. in East Providence, is the only statewide membership organization – providing services to individuals with a brain injury, their families and caregivers.

Among the services BIARI offers:

• Rhode Island’s only walk-in Brain Injury Resource Center, 1017 Waterman Ave., East Providence, where the staff is available to suggest materials Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Evenings by appointment).
• A source of referrals, trainings and workshops for survivors, families, professionals and caregivers.
• BIARI has a comprehensive Brain Injury Resource Guide, which is free to survivors, family members, caregivers, and related professionals and agencies. To obtain a Guide, email braininjurycenter@biari.org or call 401-228-3319.
• The nonprofit has Statewide Support Groups and an annual Education Conference in March, which is brain injury awareness month.
• BIARI’s Community Outreach is throughout the state where it offers valuable impact testing and sports concussion information to students, nurses, teachers and parents, as well as trainings and workshops to hospitals, nursing homes, mental health agencies, group homes, rehabilitation centers and businesses.

For more information, call 401-228-3319 or email braininjurycenter@biari.org. To register for the Keep Your Head Up 5K Walk, click here.

##