This Is Our Lane Advisory Council

Dr. Joseph Sakran, Advisory Council Chair, MD, MPH, MPA

Dr. Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA, is a trailblazer and nationally respected voice in the firearm injury prevention movement. He is currently the executive vice chair of Surgery, director of Clinical Operations, director of Emergency General Surgery, and associate professor of Surgery and Nursing at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD. As a survivor of firearm-related violence, he was motivated to become a surgeon, researcher, and advocate in firearm injury prevention. At every turn of his career, he has used his personal experience and substantial skills to push a new frontier primarily in service of marginalized communities in the United States. 

Dr. Sakran served as a National Academy of Medicine Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate during the COVID-19 pandemic guiding historic legislation. He was instrumental in helping shepherd the legislation that led to the passage of the first federal firearm injury prevention legislation in nearly 30 years, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Dr. Sakran played a key role in laying the foundation for the landmark White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was launched by President Biden in 2023. 

His work beyond the bedside was recently recognized by Johns Hopkins University as he was awarded the 2024 President’s Frontier Award. He has testified on firearm injury prevention before the U.S. Congress and other federal and state agencies. Most recently, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for his innovative work and exceptional leadership in firearm injury prevention, which has been instrumental in establishing the urgency and intellectual foundation to drive research and evidence-based policy change at the local, state, and federal levels. 

Dr. Halleh Akbarnia, MD, MPH, FACEP

Dr. Halleh Akbarnia, MD, MPH, FACEP, is an emergency medicine physician who has worked at Level I Trauma Centers for over 20 years, treating gun violence victims and being a survivor herself. Personally affected by gun violence, she has become a strong advocate for gun violence prevention at both national and local levels.

She serves on the Board of Directors for both Doctors for America (DFA) and the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians (ICEP). In DFA, she works on national health policy and advocacy initiatives and is the former chair of its Community Health and Prevention Committee, where she oversaw the organization’s gun violence prevention efforts- including organizing White Coats at the White House, a national convening focused on promoting firearm safe storage as a public health strategy. Within the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), she chairs the Gun Violence Prevention Subcommittee of the Public Health Committee. Dr. Akbarnia is also active in several national gun violence prevention organizations, including This Is Our Lane, Newtown Action Alliance, Moms Demand Action, and the Illinois Alliance for Prevention of Gun Violence.

A frequent speaker on physician advocacy and public health approaches to gun violence, she has moderated and presented at national conferences and events such as the American College of Emergency Physicians Scientific Assembly, Center for American Progress Gun Violence Prevention Summit, Women in Medicine Summit, and the National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., where she shared the stage with President Biden.

Dr. Rochelle Dicker, MD

Dr. Rochelle Dicker, MD, is a professor in Residence of Surgery and Anesthesia at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She is the division chief for Acute Care Surgery and co-director of Surgical Critical Care. Prior to moving back to UCSF, she served as the vice chair for Critical Care and as the trauma medical director at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She also co-chaired the UCLA Health Equity and Translational Social Science Theme for the School of Medicine and was co-director of the Program for the Advancement of Surgical Equity (PASE). 

In 2003, she founded the Wraparound Project at San Francisco General Hospital, one of the first hospital-based violence intervention programs based on integrating credible messengers and addressing the social determinants of health. Now called the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, this organization is home to over 60 full and startup programs. Dr. Dicker is the advisory board chair. She is a member of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma where she leads a group called “Improving the Social Determinants to Attenuate Violence,” working to integrate social care and investment models and trauma-informed practices across the country in trauma centers. She is vice chair of the COT’s Injury Prevention and Control Committee. 

She also chairs the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma’s International Relations Committee and serves as the AAST liaison to the WHO. Dr. Dicker is the recipient of teaching awards at both UCSF and UCLA. She is the recipient of the UCSF Chancellor’s Award for Public Service, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the American College of Surgeons Domestic Volunteerism Award, and more.

Dr. Cornelia Griggs, MD

Dr. Cornelia Griggs, MD, is a pediatric surgeon, critical care specialist, and assistant professor in Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School. She is a health services researcher with a focus on socially responsible surgery. Her published work covers urgent public health crises, including gun violence prevention, racial and socioeconomic disparities in surgical outcomes, and childhood obesity. Dr. Griggs is the principal investigator on two foundation-funded projects studying the efficacy and implementation of a novel firearm injury prevention curriculum for healthcare workers. She is the education lead for the MGH Gun Violence Prevention Center and serves on the national board of advisors for SAFE — Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic. She was honored with the “Forty Under Forty” award by the Association of Women Surgeons and her first book, "The Sky Was Falling," published in March 2024, was a national best-seller. 

Dr. Emily Lieberman, MD, FAAP

Dr. Emily Lieberman, MD, FAAP, is a survivor of the Highland Park Parade mass shooting in 2022. In the aftermath of that trauma, she created an advocacy organization with a singular mission to federally ban assault weapons. In 2023, she increased the scope of her gun violence prevention advocacy work. She founded OnCall4Kids, a nonpartisan coalition of physicians and healthcare workers dedicated to creating a safer America for children. She has since organized over 100 meetings in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to provide lawmakers with research and evidence to support gun safety legislation that can save children's lives. She is honored to work alongside Dr. Joseph Sakran and Brady on the This Is Our Lane Advisory Council. 

Dr. Fabiola Plaza, MD

Dr. Fabiola Plaza, MD, is currently a resident physician in Child Neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University, where she is dedicated to serving her patients and advocating for health equity. With a passion for addressing pressing social issues, Fabiola's interests lie in gun violence prevention advocacy, health equity research, and working with underserved populations. Fabiola graduated from the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell with a degree conferred with distinction in community engagement. She was honored with the Promotion of Social Justice Award for her commitment to advancing fairness and equality in healthcare. Beyond her professional endeavors, Fabiola finds joy in playing board games and expressing her creativity through music, particularly the viola. She believes in the power of community engagement and strives to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those around her. 

Dr. LJ Punch, MD

Dr. LJ Punch, MD, is a trauma surgeon, aspiring healer, and founder of Power4STL, a community of health working to reduce the impact of trauma in the St. Louis region. This includes the work of The Bullet Related Injury Clinic (BRIC) and The T, a holistic harm reduction program with a focus on overdose risk, both centering the experience of Black masculine bodied people because #BlackPainMatters. 

Dr. Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, FACEP

Dr. Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, FACEP, is an emergency physician, researcher, and national advocate for innovative approaches to public health. She serves as dean of the Yale School of Public Health, where she is also the C.-E. A. Winslow professor of Public Health. Her research focuses on digital health interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health problems and on COVID-related risk reduction. Dr. Ranney has held multiple national leadership roles, including co-founder of GetUsPPE during the COVID-19 pandemic and senior strategic advisor to AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute. She was also previously the Warren Alpert Endowed professor of Emergency Medicine, deputy dean of the School of Public Health, and founding director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health at Brown University. 

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the Aspen Health Innovators’ Fellowship, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Dr. Ranney earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, her MD from Columbia University, and earned a master's in public health from Brown University. She also completed a residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Injury Prevention research from Brown University. 

Dr. Babak Sarani, MD, MPH, MPA

Dr. Babak Sarani, MD, MPH, MPA, is a professor of Surgery and Emergency Medicine and the chief of Trauma Surgery at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He graduated from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in 1997 and completed his training in General Surgery at GW in 2004. Following this, he completed his fellowship training in Trauma and Critical Care Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He began his career as an assistant professor of Surgery in the Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Critical Care Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. 

In 2011, Dr. Sarani was recruited back to GW, where he is the founder and director of the Center for Trauma and Critical Care at the George Washington University Hospital. He established a Level II Trauma Center in Arlington, VA, in 2020 and is now leading the effort to establish a Level III Trauma Center in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, current member of the Board of Directors of the American Trauma Society and the Surgical Critical Care Program Director’s Society, past Chair of the Brady: United Against Gun Violence Regional Leadership Council for Washington, D.C., and president of the Chest Wall Injury Society. He is an established researcher on processes to mitigate the risk of death following mass shootings. 

Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD, MSc

Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD, MSc, is a pediatric surgeon and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded firearm injury prevention researcher. He serves as vice president of Strategic Initiatives at Northwell Health, trauma director at Cohen Children's Medical Center, and director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention, where he oversees the health system’s expansive approach to firearm injury prevention and spearheaded the formation of the National Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Hospitals and Health Systems. Dr. Sathya was awarded $1.4 million from the NIH to study gun violence prevention and implement a first-of-its-kind protocol to universally screen those at risk of firearm injury. He is an assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. 

He completed medical school and general surgery training at the University of Toronto, followed by a Pediatric Surgery Fellowship at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. He holds a master’s in clinical epidemiology from the University of Toronto and completed a Fellowship in Global Journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs and a Global Public Health program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. 

Dr. Randi Smith, MD, MPH

Dr. Randi Smith, MD, MPH, received her MD degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her general surgery residency at the University of California San Francisco, East Bay, and her fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Smith serves as a trauma surgeon and surgical ICU doctor at Grady Memorial Hospital, where she specializes in violence prevention, global surgery, and clinical outcomes, with a focus on understanding the social determinants of health that lead to trauma and health disparities. Dr. Smith has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts on these topics and has won both teaching and service awards at Grady. Additionally, Dr. Smith is involved in pipeline programs that bridge the gap between youth from backgrounds underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) and the medical fields and is a member of several committees aimed at achieving diversity, inclusion, and health equity. 

Dr. Smith is also jointly appointed at the School of Public Health and teaches two courses promoting firearm injury prevention and violence as a public health problem. She has gained national reputation for her work with hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIP) and youth violence reduction strategies and currently serves as the medical director for the Interrupting Violence in Youth and Young Adult (IVYY) HVIP at Grady.

Dr. Layla Soliman, MD

Dr. Layla Soliman, MD, completed her undergraduate degree at Wayne State University, earning a B.S. in Psychology. She attended medical school at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, OH. Dr. Soliman then completed her residency training in general psychiatry and fellowship training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She is board-certified in general and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Soliman teaches medical students and residents as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry with Atrium Health-Wake Forest School of Medicine. Her professional focus is on utilizing the principles of suicide and violence risk assessment in the clinical setting. As such, she advocates a nuanced, culturally competent approach to firearm injury prevention, with a focus on emphasizing common ground to move forward. 

Gary N. Holland, MD

Gary N. Holland, MD, is the Jack H. Skirball Chair in Ocular Inflammatory Diseases and Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA. He is also actively involved in medical student education and educational research. Dr. Holland has had a long-standing interest in firearm violence as a public health problem, with a particular focus on the morbidity associated with gun-related injuries among survivors, including permanent loss of vision from injuries to the face and eyes.

Since 2020, Dr. Holland has helped instruct medical students on the epidemiology of firearm violence and how to counsel patients about firearm safety. Following the inclusion of this instruction into the DGSOM curriculum, Dr. Holland has conducted a series of studies evaluating the effectiveness of the teaching — assessing student knowledge, information retention, and eventual application of firearm safety counseling in clinical settings. Based on these findings, the curriculum has been refined, resulting in increased student counseling behaviors.

He also serves as Faculty Advisor to medical student groups addressing firearm violence, and in May 2025 helped students organize a campus-wide interdisciplinary conference that brought together researchers from Medicine, Public Health, Public Policy, and Law, as well as community partners, to foster collaboration on firearm violence issues. 

Katie Donnelly, MD, MPH

Katie Donnelly, M.D., M.P.H., earned her medical degree from Rutgers University, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. She completed her pediatrics residency at Lurie Children’s Hospital/Northwestern University and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Children’s National Hospital/The George Washington University. She also earned her Master of Public Health degree from The George Washington University.

Dr. Donnelly is a practicing pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her husband and son. She is an accomplished firearm injury researcher and advocate, and is the founder and medical director of the Youth Violence Intervention Program at Children’s National, a program that supports and uplifts children and families impacted by community violence, especially firearm violence.In addition, Dr. Donnelly serves as the co-lead for the Health Alliance For Violence Intervention: The HAVI’s Working Group.

Sam Okum

Sam Okum is a fourth-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University, where he serves as the president and co-founder of Hopkins Med Against Gun Violence, the institution’s first student-led gun violence prevention organization.

Over the past eight years, his firearm injury prevention work has encompassed research, advocacy, and community engagement. Beginning as an undergraduate researcher at the University of Chicago studying trauma systems, he has focused on firearm injury epidemiology and the impact of legal-institutional environments on injury rates.

More recently, Mr. Okum has helped lead the development and implementation of a firearm injury prevention curriculum across all four years of instruction at Johns Hopkins. His work has been featured at nationally recognized conferences and in peer-reviewed publications.