June 4, 2026
Appointed Member
Honor recognizes Exponent engineer's work in advancing injury biomechanics, protective equipment evaluation, and STEM inspiration for the next generation
Jessica Isaacs, Ph.D., P.E., a managing engineer in Exponent's Biomechanics practice, has been named a 2026 IF/THEN Game Changer, a national honor recognizing women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) who are inspiring the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers.
Dr. Isaacs was recognized for her contributions to biomechanics and safety engineering, including work that deepens understanding of injury mechanisms, injury causation, and protective equipment performance. She was selected alongside other Game Changers for demonstrating how STEM shapes sports through fields such as sports medicine, biomechanics, athletic performance, engineering, and innovation.
As part of the honor, Dr. Isaacs will be featured as one of 26 statues in the IF/THEN Game Changers exhibit during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Fan Festival in Dallas. The exhibit spotlights women who are advancing STEM and helps make their careers more visible to young people through one of the world's largest sporting events. The Game Changers exhibit is the second iteration of the #IfThenSheCan project. The Exhibit, which originally debuted in 2021 with 120 statues of contemporary women in STEM, is the largest group of statues of women ever assembled.
The IF/THEN Initiative is an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, founded in 2019 to raise the visibility of women in STEM and inspire future innovators. Its Game Changers program honors women whose work is shaping the future and whose leadership provides a powerful example for students and aspiring STEM professionals.
Advancing safety through biomechanics
At Exponent, Dr. Isaacs applies biomechanics, injury biomechanics, and human performance engineering to help clients understand how the body responds to complex loading environments. Her work spans injury causation, injury mechanism analysis, product and protective equipment evaluation, and engineering analysis across a range of real-world conditions.
A key area of her work involves helmet and protective equipment performance. Exponent's multidisciplinary teams evaluate helmet design, impact protection, and injury mechanisms across a range of applications, combining biomechanics, materials science, human factors, and testing expertise to support product development, performance assessment, and injury analysis.
Dr. Isaacs has shared her passion for engineering, biomechanics, and sports safety with a national audience through CBS's Mission Unstoppable (Season 7, Episode 14), a STEM-focused television program highlighting women working across science and engineering. In the segment, she and Lisa Lallo, Ph.D. P.E., CPP, demonstrated biomechanical principles of helmet design and injury assessment using anthropomorphic test devices.
Engineering impact beyond the laboratory
As awareness of concussion risk, head impacts, and athlete safety grows across professional, collegiate, and recreational sports, organizations are increasingly seeking science-based approaches to evaluating product performance and understanding injury mechanisms. The same biomechanics principles that inform sports safety also apply across industries such as transportation, consumer products, recreation, and occupational safety.
Dr. Isaacs' recognition as an IF/THEN Game Changer reflects both her technical contributions and her commitment to helping future generations see engineering as a path to meaningful real-world impact.
