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May 08, 2024, Durham, NC – iRT is dedicated to preventing distracted and impaired driving and helping drivers, prevention professionals, and community members protect themselves and others on the road. Plan My Ride is iRT’s interactive, multimedia, eLearning program developed with and for young drivers to teach safe driving skills to prevent distracted and impaired driving. Unlike other safe driving educational programs, Plan My Ride uses a science-backed and theory-driven approach to change behavior by teaching concrete, practical strategies to avoid impaired and distracted driving, and providing opportunities for young drivers to practice the skills they have learned in 360-degree virtual scenarios. This [...]

May 08, 2024, Durham, NC – iRT is pleased to announce that the Plan My Ride program has received a 2024 Learning Excellence Award in the Design, Content Creation, and Video category. Learning Excellence Awards recognize business training and learning programs and products for their level of innovation, effectiveness, and relevance. Programs and products are judged in a rigorous evaluation and voting process for their validity and compliance by a team of senior level judges from across the training, learning, and development sector. Plan My Ride was selected from a list of various training and learning innovations in the competitive Design, [...]

May 08, 2024, Durham, NC – A recent meta-analysis found that adolescents are experiencing significantly higher levels of anxiety in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Pressures to perform well in academic environments and difficulty socializing or maintaining relationships with peers are common sources of everyday stress for adolescents. Increased socialization and returning to in-school instruction may have increased the intensity of these stressors for adolescents when social distancing policies were lifted. Brief and prolonged anxiety and stress in adolescents can contribute to various negative physical health outcomes, such as decreased immune system functioning, high blood pressure, and insomnia. In addition, [...]

August 24, 2023, Durham, NC – iRT is pleased to welcome Dereka McNair to our team of passionate and skilled professionals. McNair joined iRT this July as a system administrator to assist our team and customers by providing information technology administration, providing software support, and solving technical issues. She works closely with the entire iRT team to help iRT fulfill its mission to create products and services that improve the health and well-being of children, adolescents, young adults, families, schools, communities, and youth-serving organizations. She looks forward to working with iRT to develop new, cutting-edge programs. “It’s exciting to be at [...]

June 23, 2023, Durham, NC – iRT is pleased to announce that Jamila Howard has joined our team as an administrative assistant. Howard brings several years of experience in operational support to innovation Research & Training (iRT) and to Mentoring Central, a division of iRT, as well as proficiency in process improvement and data management. She is devoted to using her skills to make a positive impact on the community, both in her work and her free time. “I was excited to find the administrative assistant opportunity at iRT because the role is aligned with my passion and my technical skill [...]

April 24, 2023, Durham, NC – iRT is pleased to announce the addition of Ellen Frost, Yulee Leon, Elizabeth Porter, and Cristina Rodriguez to its diverse team of driven professionals. Frost brings 10 years of experience in operations and business management to iRT as the newest addition to the team. She received her bachelor’s degree in musical theatre performance and began her career as a performer in New York City before pursuing higher education in business. Frost then earned her master’s degree in business administration in 2020 and made her transition to iRT. “I moved to Raleigh this year and am [...]

Calling NC teens who have participated in clinical trials! Share your experiences with other teens to help them learn more about the importance of research. Pediatric clinical trials are necessary in order to know if treatments are safe and effective for children and teens. DigiKnowIt News is a website that educates children about participating in pediatric clinical trials. We are creating a version specifically for teens and are looking for teens to share their real-life experiences of participating in research. This way, other teens will have more information about what it's like to participate, if they are ever given the opportunity. [...]

Durham, NC, March 17, 2021 - innovation, Research & Training (iRT) launched a new website for clients, prospects, and partners to learn more about the organization’s advances in behavioral science research. The new and intuitively styled website features iRT’s projects and high quality products. Find information about iRT’s research, products, services, and news by navigating the dropdown menus. Explore quality research through webpages dedicated to recent projects and research focus areas, including media literacy education, mentoring, mindfulness education, and more. In addition, products easily filter by product age group, method, or outcome. Discover recent happenings and current events, like webinars, within [...]

iRT is expanding research on adolescents with an intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD) with funding from the Administration for Community Living supporting a study on teaching mindfulness, via a novel, online mindfulness program, to adolescents with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS). The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) awarded iRT with a grant (90BISB0016-01-00) to create a program that can help reduce anxiety and improve coping with everyday stressors among teens with 22q11DS in an attempt to fill the gap of available, non-pharmacological interventions for adolescents in this population. Program development will build upon a previous pilot study, [...]