Curbing Gun Violence in the Trump Era
April 21, 2017
Gun Control in the Trump Era - A Practical Look at Balancing Effective Policy to Safeguard Americans with the Rights to Bear Arms
Having just marked the 225th anniversary of the Second Amendment’s passage, experts discussed the current state of gun violence in the U.S., how President Trump’s administration will likely influence efforts to secure effective gun control measures and innovative ways public policy leaders can work to save lives from needless gun deaths.
Meet the Panel
Sandro Galea
Cheryl Healton
Adam Skaggs
Daniel Webster
Rob Wilcox
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson
Dr. Sandro Galea, Robert A. Knox Professor and Dean, Boston University School of Public Health
Dr. Galea is a physician and an epidemiologist. He is the Robert A. Knox Professor and Dean at the Boston University School of Public Health. Prior to his appointment at Boston University, Dr Galea served as the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at the University of Michigan and at the New York Academy of Medicine.
In his scholarship, Dr. Galea is centrally interested in the social production of health of urban populations, with a focus on the causes of brain disorders, particularly common mood-anxiety disorders and substance abuse. He has long had a particular interest in the consequences of mass trauma and conflict worldwide, including as a result of the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, and the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This work has been principally funded by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and several foundations. He has published over 600 scientific journal articles, 50 chapters, and 10 books and his research has been featured extensively in current periodicals and newspapers. His latest book, co-authored with Dr. Katherine Keyes, is Population Health Science, forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2016.
Dr. Galea has a medical degree from the University of Toronto, and graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University; he has an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow. He was named one of TIME magazine’s epidemiology innovators and has been listed by Thomson Reuters as one of the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” for the Social Sciences. He is past-president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the American Epidemiological Society.
Dr Galea serves frequently on advisory groups to national and international organizations. He currently serves on the Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities and has formerly served as chair of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Community Services Board and as member of its Health Board.
Dr. Cheryl Healton, Associate Professor of Public Service at NYU Wagner and Dean and Professor of Global Public Health at NYU College of Global Public Health
Dr. Cheryl Healton is Director of the NYU Global Institute of Public Health, Dean of the College of Global Public Health and is Professor of Global Public Health at NYU. In her capacity as Director she is responsible for building the Institute’s academic, service and research programs in collaboration with partners at NYU and throughout the public health community. The Institute will focus on domestic and international health issues with an emphasis on prevention, systems intervention and innovation in public health practice.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Healton joined the staff of Legacy, the foundation created by the Master Settlement Agreement between the States Attorneys General and the tobacco industry as the first President and chief executive officer. In this role she worked to further the foundation’s ambitious mission: to build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. During her tenure with the foundation, she has guided the highly acclaimed, national youth tobacco prevention counter-marketing campaign, truth®, which has been credited in part with reducing youth smoking prevalence to near record lows. . In 2007 with Dr. Healton’s guidance and support, Legacy spearheaded a national coalition of public and private organizations – the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation – to launch the first-ever national smoking cessation campaign since the Fairness Doctrine, a brief period during which public health groups received free time on the airwaves to counter televised ads to sell tobacco. Legacy has also established a research institute, The Steven A. Schroeder Institute which has grown markedly since its inception.
Dr. Healton holds a doctorate from Columbia University's School of Public Health (with distinction) and a master's degree in Public Administration from NYU Wagner in Health Policy and Planning.
From 1975 until the present, Dr. Healton held a variety of posts at Columbia University including Associate for Clinical Administration and Assistant Vice-President for the Health Sciences where among other roles she oversaw hospital affiliation affairs. In 1987 she joined Columbia University's Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health in New York, where she served as Chair of the Department of Socio-medical Sciences, Associate Dean for Program Development, and Director of the Center for Applied Public Health. During her tenure at Columbia, Dr. Healton worked to expand the scope of public health programs and undertook innovative educational initiatives to advance public health practice in NYC and throughout the nation. She was the founding chair of the Public health Practice Council of the Association of Schools of Public Health and served on numerous committees of the AAMC and ASPH. She directed multiple service and research grants serving as PI and co-PI on over 20 grants. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and special reports on a variety of public health related topics including HIV Aids, public health education, health policy, substance abuse and tobacco.
Dr. Healton‘s career in the field of public health has earned her national recognition and praise. The recipient of numerous prestigious awards, she has been honored with the Secretary of HHS award for Innovation in Public Health for her work to reduce prenatal transmission of HIV through rapid dissemination of culturally tailored education to increase use of medical therapy in pregnancy and the Public Health Award from NYC Department of health for her work in advancing public health practice. She has also received the American Lung Association’s Life and Breath Award, was named the Donald A. Berreth Lecturer by the National Public Health Information Coalition and received the public communications award from the Public Health Association of New York City. She is the recipient of the Troy R. Westmeyer Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award from New York University’s Wagner School.
She is also an active member of the broader public health community, serving on several boards including currently the National Board of Public Health Examiners (treasurer), the Betty Ford Institute, Lung Cancer Alliance, and Phoenix House.
Dr. Healton is a thought-provoking public speaker and has given presentations around the world. Considered bold, inspirational and humorous, she is a frequent commentator on national and local broadcasts and print news coverage of tobacco control issues, appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America; CNN’s Larry King Live; NBC’s Today, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, National Public Radio and more.
Adam Skaggs, Litigation Director, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Representative, Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force
Adam Skaggs joined the Law Center as litigation director in 2016. Before then, he served as senior counsel at Everytown for Gun Safety, where he led the organization’s litigation efforts and advocated for firearm policies designed to reduce gun violence.
Adam previously served as senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, where he worked on issues related to money in politics, judicial independence, and voting rights. He was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York City and a law clerk to Judge Stanley Marcus of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Chief Judge Edward Korman of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Adam’s political commentary has been published in the National Law Journal, the New Republic, Politico, the Atlantic, ACSBlog, and the New York Times, among other publications, and he has been widely quoted by media from the Wall Street Journal and Fox News to the New York Times and MSNBC. Adam graduated summa cum laude with a JD from Brooklyn Law School, where he was a member of the Brooklyn Law Review. He received an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and holds a BA, awarded with distinction, from Swarthmore College.
Daniel Webster, Co-author, Reducing Gun Violence in America
Daniel W. Webster, ScD, MPH is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Webster is Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence. He leads the Johns Hopkins-Baltimore Collaborative for Violence Reduction and holds a joint appointment as Professor in the School of Education's Division of Public Safety Leadership at Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Webster is one of the nation’s leading experts on firearm policy and the prevention of gun violence. He is co-editor and contributor to Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis (JHU Press, 2013). He has published numerous articles on firearm policy, the prevention of gun violence, intimate partner violence, and youth violence prevention. He has studied the effects of a variety of violence prevention interventions including firearm and alcohol policies, policing strategies, street outreach and conflict mediation, and school-based curricula. Dr. Webster teaches Understanding and Preventing Violence and Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy.
Rob Wilcox, EVERYTOWN Gun Safety
Robert B. Wilcox, Jr. is a Staff Attorney with the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. His practice focuses on reforming the gun industry through civil actions brought on behalf of victims of gun violence. He currently represents victims across the country including a number of law enforcement officers shot or killed in the line of duty. He is also involved in defending gun laws from Second Amendment challenges. Mr. Wilcox actively participates in conferences and forums related to his work at the Brady Center, the Second Amendment and gun violence prevention more generally. Mr. Wilcox graduated cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law in 2007 and joined the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he spent 6 years practicing as part of their litigation department. Mr. Wilcox became involved in gun violence prevention in 2001 after losing his cousin, Laura. He previously worked at Brady from 2001 through 2004.
The Honorable Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor, Gary, Indiana
In November 2011, the citizens of Gary, Indiana chose a new day for the city by electing Karen Freeman- Wilson, Mayor. On December 31, 2011, Freeman-Wilson became the first woman to lead the steel city and the first African-American female mayor in the State of Indiana.
Often comparing herself to “Dorothy from Oz,” Freeman-Wilson has been asked to render counsel on various matters throughout the United States and other parts of the world, but she often quips that “there is no place like home.” Along with her husband Carmen Wilson and their daughter Jordan, Freeman-Wilson resides in her native city of Gary, Indiana. She was valedictorian of her graduating class at Gary’s storied Roosevelt High School and went on to become an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Despite her breadth of travel and influence throughout the United States, Freeman-Wilson’s loyalty and commitment to her home city has never wavered. Indeed, her passion for Gary, coupled with her experience and training, have positioned her for leadership and prepared her to tackle the major challenges facing the city. She is the immediate past CEO of The National Association of Drug Court Professionals and Executive Director of The National Drug Court Institute based in Washington, D.C. With Freeman-Wilson at the helm, the number of drug courts in the U.S. doubled to 1700 and NADCP became the premier organizational advocate for drug treatment in the judicial arena. Freeman-Wilson has consulted with the Office of White House Drug Control Policy, the Department of Justice and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the creation and implementation of drug policy. As the twice-elected Gary City Judge, she helped pioneer the drug court movement in Indiana.
Freeman-Wilson has also demonstrated public service and leadership in state government. During her tenure as Indiana Attorney General, Freeman-Wilson fought passionately on behalf of youth, seniors and abused nursing home patients. She was one of the first Attorneys General in the country to combat gas price gouging and to ensure that tobacco settlement dollars were directed towards smoking cessation and health care. While she was the Executive Director of The Indiana Civil Rights Commission, Indiana was one of the first states to pass legislation comparable to the American with Disabilities Act.
Her capabilities, intellect and stellar record of success have not gone unnoticed by national party leaders. In 2000, she was named as one of the top 100 to watch by the National Democratic Leadership Council. That was followed with the honor of being asked to address the 2000 National Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. Her contributions have also been acknowledged by U.S. Drug Czars, Indiana Governors and Supreme Court Justices throughout the United States.
When asked about her commitment to her hometown, Freeman-Wilson often acknowledges that Gary has a history of many obstacles, but quickly notes that the city’s challenges pale in comparison to its potential. “Our city is a diamond in the rough and we simply need the right leadership.” Gary citizens and members of the local media seem confident that Freeman-Wilson will provide the visionary leadership to distinguish Gary as a beacon in Northwest Indiana.