Our Founders

Martin R. Eichelberger, M.D., and Herta Feeley founded Safe Kids Worldwide as the National SAFE KIDS Campaign in 1988.

Martin R. Eichelberger, M.D.
Founder, Safe Kids Worldwide

Martin R. Eichelberger, M.D., is a professor of surgery and of pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine. He graduated from Princeton University and Hahnemann University Medical School and completed his surgical education at the Case Western Reserve University Hospital in Cleveland and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He holds visiting professorships in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as the United States.

He is former chief of the Emergency Trauma and Burn Service at Children’s National Medical Center. He has also served as director of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network for children and medical director of the Emergency Medical Services for Children National Resource Center.

Dr. Eichelberger’s lifelong quest to prevent childhood injuries has led to increased research, improved safety measures and significant change in awareness of child safety issues. He founded Safe Kids Worldwide as the National SAFE KIDS Campaign in 1988.

Herta Feely
Founder, Safe Kids Worldwide

With a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, Herta Feely worked in Washington, D.C. as a press secretary, writer, editor, and public relations consultant for a variety of organizations. She began working with Dr. Martin Eichelberger when hired to publicize the documentary “Our Children’s War,” a film following five injured children through Children’s National Medical Center. Before embarking on the Safe Kids campaign, the two collaborated on several projects related to the hospital’s trauma center.

In 1986, in her work for Children’s National Medical Center, Ms. Feely saw the need for a nationwide childhood injury prevention campaign and developed the concept with Dr. Eichelberger. Funding that launched the National Safe Kids Campaign came from Johnson & Johnson in 1987. Ms. Feely was the campaign’s executive director for the first six years, establishing the multifaceted efforts that underlie Safe Kids' work today. This included building grassroots coalitions, developing educational programs and setting public policy priorities and media goals.

Her efforts led to a reduction in childhood injuries, improved safety legislation, a network of U.S. state and local coalitions and increased awareness of child injury issues. From 2006 to 2007, Ms. Feely returned to Safe Kids Worldwide to provide her energy, experience and insight.

She is also an award-winning author. Her fiction and memoirs have appeared in numerous literary journals. A few years ago, she established Chrysalis Editorial, a full-service editing business that allows authors to achieve their writing goals.