Linda Saltzman New Investigator Award

Established in 2005 through generous donations from Dr. Saltzman’s family and colleagues, the Linda E. Saltzman Memorial Award Endowment closed at the CDC Foundation in 2026. 

The endowment supported the Linda Saltzman New Investigator Award, which continues to recognize promising researchers working to advance the prevention of intimate partner violence. Administration and stewardship of the fund has now transitioned to Futures Without Violence, the CDC Foundation’s longtime partner in presenting the award at the National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence.

About Dr. Linda Saltzman

Senior Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Linda Saltzman, PhD, connected research to policy and science to advocacy in ways that broke new ground, challenging the research community to explore violence and helping advocates base their work on science.

Dr. Saltzman worked at the CDC from 1984 until her death in 2005. While there, she initiated numerous studies that built understanding about the causes and consequences of domestic and sexual violence. Much of her work focused on public health surveillance of violence against women, and violence as it relates to pregnancy and other reproductive health issues. She helped develop and test uniform definitions for intimate partner and sexual violence, which have made data collection more effective. She became one of the CDC’s top experts on violence, and one of the violence prevention movement’s most trusted allies. A highly regarded expert, Dr. Saltzman authored and co-authored several groundbreaking studies including Intimate Partner Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements.