Cynthia R LabellaCynthia LaBella, MD, is the Medical Director of the Institute for Sports Medicine at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

After earnin her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in New York and finishing a residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Dr. LaBella completed a sports medicine fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is board certified in both Pediatrics and Sports Medicine, and joined Lurie Children's in 2004 to develop a comprehensive program in pediatric sports medicine, encompassing clinical care, research, and community outreach.

Dr. LaBella has served as team physician for youth, high school, college, elite, and professional teams. She is currently the head team physician for the USA Rhythmic Gymnastics National Team, De La Salle High School, and North Side Youth Football League in Chicago.

Dr. LaBella is past chairperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness (COSMF) from 2014 to 2019, and prior to this she served for 7 years on the COSMF executive committee as its policy coordinator. In 2020, she was selected to serve on the President's Council for Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Science Board. Dr. LaBella is an active member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), where she has contributed as a co-author on several team physician consensus statements. In 2020, she was elected to the Board of Directors for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine after serving on its research committee for many years. Dr. LaBella is also on the sports medicine advisory committees for the Illinois High School Association, US Soccer, and Pop Warner Football.

Her research efforts focus on identification of risk factors for injury in youth sports and development of strategies for prevention. She won two awards for her 2006 research demonstrating that a coach-led neuromuscular warm-up reduces knee and ankle injuries in girls' soccer and basketball at Chicago Public High Schools. This study was published in the November 2011 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. She also co-authored a 2015 study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine which was the first to show that sports specialization is an independent risk factor for injury in children and adolescents. Her collaborative research with Northwestern University's Department of Neuroscience has led to development of a novel auditory test that can help identify concussions and monitor recovery. Since the initial publication of this research in Nature's Scientific Reports in 2016, Dr. LaBella and her collaborators have received a large grant from the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment for a longitudinal study of this auditory test in the clinical setting.
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