Unloading: Community Solutions for Gun Violence

Dr. Barnhorst is the Vice Chair for Community Mental Health in the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry, an Associate Director of the California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis, a Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and the Director of the BulletPoints Project, a state-funded effort to develop a firearm violence prevention curriculum for healthcare providers. Her academic...

Kat is a 1st year medical student at Rush Chicago. She previously worked with AMWA Gun Violence Solutions (GVS) Committee before starting medical school, and is one of the founding creators of Unloading, the AMWA GVS podcast. Claire is a 3rd year medical student at University of Colorado. She was recently awarded the 2024 University of Colorado Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention grant to...

Ms Miller, MA, LPCC is the Director of the Phoenix Center at Auraria. She is an award-winning activist and educator, with extensive experience in advocacy for survivors of interpersonal violence and human trafficking. In addition to serving as the Director for the PCA, Katherine also teaches undergraduate students at MSU Denver and the Community College Online System in both the Gender, Women, and...

Dr. Evans, MD, MPH is an obstetrician and gynecologist Tufts Medical Center in Boston and Associate Professor at the School of Medicine. She has a Master in Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health. Her strong passion in advocacy and health policy has led her to write an advocacy column for OBG Management and she is co-founder of The O+G Advocates podcast, focusing on topics re...

Dr. Freeman is a Pediatrician in Buffalo NY and Clinical Assistant Professor at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. She serves as the local Everytown for Gun Safety Be SMART campaign lead and Wear Orange lead, and has been leading the charge on adding novel curriculum at her institution focused on teaching gun violence prevention with the hope of increas...

Dr. Frattaroli, PhD, is a prominent researcher and faculty member at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Frattaroli has dedicated her career to exploring critical areas such as firearm injury and prevention policies, and her research has had a profound impact on both academic discourse and practical applic...

Dr. Green, MD FAAEM, an emergency physician in Nashville, TN. She graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in Chemical Engineering in 2003, received her MD from Wayne State University in 2008, and completed her emergency medicine residency at Indiana University in 2011. She has been a member of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine since residency and served as an at-large board mem...

We meet with Curtis and Jason from Chicago CRED (Creating Real Economic Destiny). is an anti-gun violence organization co-founded in 2016 by Arne Duncan, a former U.S. Secretary of Education and CEO of Chicago Public Schools, and Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder and president of Emerson Collective, a Palo Alto-based social impact organization.” Chicago CRED believes in investing in the community,...

DeAndra is a volunteer with the Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action and a Senior Fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network. On February 1, 2014, DeAndra's 13-year-old son, DeAndre (Dre), was struck by a stray bullet at a birthday party. Dre survived, but was critically wounded and can no longer walk or talk. Since Dre was shot, DeAndra has become a dedicated activist with a focus on raising awa...

Dr. Kelsey Gastineau, M.D. (she/her) is a Moms Demand Action volunteer and board-certified pediatrician based in Nashville, TN. A public health researcher, Dr. Gastineau is also a physician advocate specializing in pediatric injury prevention. One of her focuses is on safe firearm storage as a Be SMART program advocate, a framework designed to help parents and adults normalize conversations about...

Po lived next door to Adam Lanza and his family and knows intimately about the pain caused by the Sandy Hook shooting. She and other community members gathered briefly after the shooting to form the “Sandy Hook Promise.” with the mission to prevent tragedies from happening to other communities through advocacy and programs that teach youth and adults how to prevent violence and shootings. Po branc...

Ashley (she/her) is a junior at Hollywood High School in California, where she is a leader with Students Demand Action. Ashley first joined Students Demand Action as a participant in the 2021 South Central Los Angeles Summer Leadership Academy. Ashley’s community is heavily impacted by gun violence and she has endured numerous active shooter threats and drills throughout her schooling years, inclu...

Kat and Minorvi talk to Dr. Dennis Kuo, a pediatrician in Buffalo, NY who treats kids with disabilities and chronic conditions, including those impacted by gun violence. Dr. Kuo discusses how he talks to children and parents about firearms, the role of physicians in addressing the firearm death epidemic, and the importance of building community partnerships.

Kat and Minorvi interview Dr. Christine Castater, a trauma surgeon in Georgia who has been working to address the PTSD epidemic among physicians. She discusses second victim syndrome, PTSD in those responding to gun shot wounds, and her novel investigation of the screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) intervention in trauma patients.

Kat and Minorvi talk to Adara Combs, a native Philadelphian and former prosecutor who was recently appointed to lead the Office of the Victim Advocate in Philadelphia, PA. The Office will be the first in the city and serve to champion the needs of crime victims. Adara Combs discusses the gun violence epidemic in Philadelphia and how this newly created Office seeks to respond to it.

Kat and Minorvi interview Lara Drino, a Los Angelos deputy city attorney who also leads the Children Exposed to Violence Initiative and the REACH Team in South LA. The REACH Team supports children and their families in the aftermath of gun violence. Lara discusses the use of organizational interventions, long-term mental health services, and community safety partnerships in the quest to diminish g...