About Dr. Emma Sartin and Driver Rehabilitation Institute

Dr Emma Sartin

Get to Know Emma Sartin

Emma Sartin, PhD, MPH

Emma Sartin Goodman, PhD, MPH, was elected President of DRI in September 2025 by the board of directors. Trained in public health, psychology, and transportation safety, she is focused on expanding access to supportive, evidence-based services that help people drive, ride, roll, and navigate community mobility with confidence. Her goals as president include strengthening partnerships, improving resources for families and clinicians, and ensuring DRI’s work reflects the needs of people across ages, abilities, and life circumstances.

Emma completed a dual-degree PhD in Lifespan Developmental Psychology and MPH in Health Behavior program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She then completed a postdoc at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Emma has been an active researcher for more than a decade, with more than 30 peer-reviewed publications focused on traffic safety, autism, learning to drive, and child passenger safety.

Emma replaces Miriam Monahan, OTD CDRS who welcomes retirement after being president of DRI for 20 years. Emma and Miriam have been collaborators for a long time and will continue to work together.

History of DRI

2002
Looking and Seeing
Visual Search Program Begins
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  • Dr. Miriam Monahan was working with a client with a mild traumatic brain injury who was occasionally missing important roadway information.
  • Miriam realized that many of her clients with a variety of conditions such as autism, Parkinson's disease, and others needed a tool to help them search the road more efficiently
2005
Clinical and Research
Supporting clients and researchers
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  • Driver Rehabilitation Institute (DRI) was founded in Vermont.
  • DRI quickly swamped with clients some travelling as much as 6 hours for driving rehabilitation
  • Clients with visual, cognitive, and physical needs receive  state-of-the-art assessment and training interventions.
  • DRI provides a testing site for the University of Minnesota study on brain injury and driving.
2006
Autism and Driving
Assessment and training
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  • DRI provides its first autism and driving workshop at The Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists.
  • The approach of a potential to drive evaluation and unique training is new to the field.
2015
Drive Focus Version 1.0
Drive Focus Launches
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  • After 3 years of development, Drive Focus 1.0 released
  • DRI refines focus to autism and driving
2018
Drive Focus Research
New drivers and learner drivers
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  • First research on Drive Focus begins to be published.
  • University of Western Ontario finds that six 1-hour sessions with Drive Focus improves teen visual scanning ability and reduces driving errors
2020
Drive Focus Android
Expanding Access
For Professional Drive Focus For Rehabilitation Professionals
  • New versions of Drive Focus created for Android Tablets, Chromebooks, and Amazon Fire tablets
2021
Australia
Australian Road Safety Technology Award
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  • Australian (driving on the left side of the road) content developed in collaboration with Driving Well OT in Brisbane.
  • Driving Well OT receives the Australian Road Safety Technology Award
2021
User Analytics
Therapists and Driving Schools
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  • DRI releases User Analytics.
  • Users can now share Drive Focus activity and use with therapists and driving school instructors
2022
NIH Research Grant
Grant Awarded
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  • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Minnesota Health Solutions are awarded a Small Business Innovation Grant to improve Drive Focus for autistic learners
2023
Drive Focus 2.0
Drive Focus Improvements and Enhancements
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  • Drive Focus extensively re-written
  • Add support for virtual reality headsets
  • Ability to easily create new drives added
2025
New Leadership
Acceleration
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  • After 20 years, we welcomed a new Board of Directors.
  • New ideas and vision will enhance and expand Drive Focus
Download

Drive Focus App

The first research-based driver training app that takes your driving to the next level. Enhance your reaction speed and road awareness, sharpening your ability to detect and respond to real-world driving scenarios. Build confidence behind the wheel every time you use it. 

Frequently Asked Questions

I did not receive an email verification. What do I do?

If you have not received the email verification in your inbox after 3 minutes, check your spam or junk folder.

  • In your Spam or Junk Folder, look for a message with a subject line that says No-Reply.
  • When you find it indicate that it is not spam or junk. That will move the message into your in-box and allow you to Verify your account or enable your Forgot Password request.

Drive Focus is not compatible with any phones because the screen size is too small.

Drive Focus is compatible with these devices: iPads, Android tablets, Amazon Fire Tablets, MacBooks with M1 chips, Chromebooks, Windows 11, and Apple Vision Pro. If you don’t have access to one of these devices and cost is a consideration, we recommend Amazon Fire Tablets, Android tablets, and Google Chromebooks.

In addition to the volume control on your tablet, there are two other things that affect the sound.

1. When taking a Drive, you can adjust roadway and background sound volume using the slider bar.

 

 

2. You can also turn on and off the roadway sounds and the acknowledgement chimes and beeps in the Drive Focus app settings 

Use the biggest screen you can. Here’s why:

When you use Drive Focus, you are looking at the road from the perspective of a driver. If you are using a small screen, it will be difficult to pick out things that are far away from the driver, like an upcoming traffic light or sign.

We do not recommend screens smaller than 10 inches or 25.4cm.

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Drive Focus
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What Our Users Say

I tell all my beginner drivers about drive focus. It is especially helpful for students are missing important things or hazards.  My students have told me: I think it’s great!. It’s smooth & simple. It was helpful for learning to drive! It wasn’t glitchy or buggy, where I clicked actually works.
Testimonial Mary Frances3
Maryfrances Gross
University of Kentucky 
As a clinician in a neuro clinic, I use Drive Focus with many of my patients. It's a terrific home program with objective feedback on speed of processing and visual attention. Patients love that it looks like driving and enjoy trying to improve their scores.
Testimonial Beth2
Beth Rolland
Upstate University Hospital of Syracuse
Drive Focus has been well received by Australian Occupational Therapists at two national conferences and during many workshops, with excitement about the opportunities for our clients and their driving. My clients find it easy and fun to use. It was a privilege to support Drive Focus with recording the Melbourne videos.
Testimonial Megan
Megan Coulter
Occupational Therapist
Drive Focus has taken Australia by storm! Driving Well OT in Brisbane collaborated with Miriam to bring Drive Focus to Australia, winning the Australian Road Safety Foundation award in 2021. It’s worldwide OT conference premier was in Melbourne (“Mel-bin”!) in June 2022, with OTs being excited and impressed by the impact Drive Focus can have on clients with executive functioning disorders who want to learn or return to driving. Affordable, accessible, brain-training for driving!
Testimonial Jenny
Jenny Gribbin
Occupational Therapist
I recommend Drive Focus to patients who have had strokes, brain injuries, cognitive or visual processing limitations and students with special needs exploring if they are ready to drive. Drive Focus is motivating because it looks like driving. After using Drive Focus my clients are much more relaxed and prepared for driving.
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Heather Shields
Owner Pathways Rehabilitation Services, LLC
Drive Focus is the best first step available to assist people who need help learning to drive and lack access to professional assistance.
Testimonial Bryson
Bryson
USA
My daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, used Drive Focus to help prepare for behind the wheel driving lessons. Her ability to recognize and prioritize signals, traffic, and potential hazards increased dramatically. She enjoyed the app and gained a lot of self-confidence.
Testimonial Kim
Kim
USA
I love using Drive Focus with my clients recovering from strokes to work on scanning and processing activities in preparation for driving. I also use Drive Focus with inexperienced drivers to get ready to learn to drive. The app is easy to use, very affordable, and the visuals are great!
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Susie Touchinsky
Adaptive Mobility Services, LLC
I highly recommend Drive Focus to help prepare a student to get behind the wheel of a car. I went from not knowing where to look while driving to being able to recognize the most important things for a driver to notice. It doesn't get boring because of the different cities that you drive through as you improve.
Testimonial Gwen 1
Gwen
USA
Drive Focus
Become the confident driver you’ve always wanted to be
Drive Focus