Introducing GVPedia's Academic Advisory Board
Their guidance will help GVPedia’s work as a bridge between researchers and advocates
For 8 years now, GVPedia has developed into a prime conduit of fact-based information for the Gun Violence Prevention movement. As we enter a new, presumably contentious era for firearms research dissemination and policy, our modest staff cannot continue on this mission alone.
Today we announce our new Academic Advisory Board. Made up of leaders from a wide swath of the education, health, and legal communities, they will help guide GVPedia’s work as a bridge between researchers and advocates.
GVPedia’s mission is to arm policymakers, advocates, and the public with facts and data to create evidence-based policy to reduce gun violence. As part of this work, we often produce literature reviews, independent research, and data-based findings that are made available to the public. The Academic Advisory Board will serve to guide and review this research.
Board members are asked to serve as advisors, and even contributors if inclined, as we identify potential research topics and write papers that compile and analyze existing research or identify emerging trends in gun violence prevention. Members of the Board are professors or researchers at an accredited academic institution.
Our Academic Advisory Board
Mary Bernstein, PhD
Mary Bernstein is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of The Graduate School at the University of Connecticut. Professor Bernstein’s research on gun violence prevention advocacy examines the ways in which cultural meaning systems and structural inequality, especially systemic racism, influence how gun violence prevention activists work together across various lines of difference to prevent gun violence. She co-founded and then co-directed the Gun Violence Prevention Research Interest Group of the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy at the University of Connecticut from 2019 to 2023. She has served on the boards of the Newtown Action Alliance and Connecticut Against Gun Violence.
Nicole Cook, PhD, MPA
Nicole Cook is a seasoned health care administrator, epidemiologist, and health services scientist with a broad background in applying Electronic Health Record (EHR) data to improving care for medically underserved populations. Her passion is to improve surveillance, care delivery, and healthcare outcomes in safety-net primary care settings. In collaboration with diverse researchers, stakeholders and people with lived experience, Nicole is committed to conducting real-world implementation science and translating research findings into actionable strategies.
Cassandra Crifasi, PhD, MPH
Dr. Cassandra Crifasi is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions. She is also a core faculty member in the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Center for Health Disparities Solutions. Working in the field for over a decade, her research focuses on the intersection of public health and public safety including injury epidemiology and prevention, gun violence and policy, and attitudes and public opinion regarding gun violence solutions.
Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
Linda C. Degutis is a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health with a focus on injury and violence as public health issues. Dr. Degutis provides consultation services in public health policy and practice, in addition to injury and violence prevention strategies, and firearm suicide prevention in veterans. She is the editor of the book, Gun Violence Prevention: A Public Health Approach. She was recently elected to chair the board of directors of the newly forming national organization, Grandmothers for Gun Responsibility.
John J. Donohue, PhD, JD
John J. Donohue, the Carlsmith Professor at Stanford Law School, has written extensively on the relationship between guns and crime. Donohue, who holds a J.D. (Harvard) and a Ph.D in economics (Yale), is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has edited the American Law and Economics Review, has served as the President of the American Law and Economics Association and the Society for Empirical Legal Studies, and is a former member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ieva Jusionyte, PhD, MA
Ieva Jusionyte is a legal anthropologist and associate professor at Brown University. She is the author of several books. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and fellowships from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Fulbright Program. Jusionyte has written for The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone, among others. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of Global Action on Gun Violence and the Research Network to Prevent Gun Violence in the Americas.
Woodie Kessel, BSEE, MD, MPH
Woodie Kessel is a pediatrician and child advocate. He has had an extensive career as an educator, investigator, and practitioner in medicine, public health, bioengineering, community-based programming, and public policy. His research focuses on improving the health of children and families, advancing physical activity and motor skill development in kindergarteners, eliminating food insecurity, with a special focus on preventing gun violence and safe firearm storage. Dr. Kessel is the Co-Director of President Darryll Pines’ UMD Prevent Gun Violence: Research, Empowerment, Strategies and Solutions (PROGRESS) Initiative. Dr. Kessel also serves as the CEK Senior Child Health Scholar in Residence at the C. Everett Koop Institute, Dartmouth College and Medical School; Professor of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College; and Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health.
Caroline Light, PhD
Caroline Light is a feminist and anti-racist scholar of U.S. history and a faculty member in the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Department at Harvard University. She is also the author of Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense ( Beacon Press, 2017), which was featured on NPR’s list of books that help explain the U.S. gun violence epidemic.
Dru Stevenson, LLM, JD
Dru Stevenson is a law professor on the faculty at South Texas College of Law – Houston, where he teaches Professional Responsibility (legal ethics), Administrative Law, and Law & Economics. His academic writing about firearms law and policy approaches the topic from a personal commitment to nonviolence. Since 2018, he has published fifteen academic articles about firearms law and policy, and has authored numerous online essays and op-ed pieces.
Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH
Daniel Webster is Bloomberg Professor of American Health and Distinguished Scholar with the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has published widely on the impacts of gun policies on homicides, suicides, and gun trafficking, and led studies of community violence intervention programs and intimate partner violence. He is the lead editor and contributor to Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2023 and is a member of the Council on Criminal Justice.
We are grateful for the feedback and guidance on GVPedia research projects and the direction that these academics will provide. If you know of anyone who might make a good addition to the board, please reach out to us to nominate them.
- Full bios here -
Top image by Hermann Traub from Pixabay.
What a fantastic idea and resource!