A grid of hand-made square tiles in bright paint, collage, fabric, and found objects, from the Peace in Our Neighborhood project
Advocacy & Activism

Gun Violence

Surgeons are often the first to care for people hurt by guns, and the work doesn’t end when the wounds close.

Peace in Our Neighborhood, the Wraparound Project

What surgeons see first

Gun violence

Surgeons are often the first to care for people hurt by guns, and the work doesn’t end when the wounds close. My interest goes back to medical school, when I worked with survivors of gun violence on the Wraparound Project’s Peace in Our Neighborhood murals, and it feels more urgent now than ever. I admire the work of Dr. Joseph Sakran, a Johns Hopkins trauma surgeon and gun violence survivor who founded This Is Our Lane to bring clinicians into gun violence prevention.

Wraparound Project · 2009

Peace in Our Neighborhood

During medical school I collaborated with the Wraparound Project at San Francisco General Hospital on Peace in Our Neighborhood — a mural-based violence prevention, healing, and community recovery project with survivors of gun violence, with Dr. Rochelle Dicker.

A grid of thirty hand-made square tiles in bright paint, collage, fabric, and found objects, with words and phrases such as PEACE OF MIND, LAUGH, CHANGE, WARM, LIVE REAL, BRAVE, CELEBRATE, DREAM, and Make Peace With Your Money.
Peace in our Neighborhood
The Wraparound Project
Now

More of what I’m working on

Association of Out Surgeons & Allies AOSA Advocacy & Activism Co-Chair, building avenues for organizational and individual advocacy. American College of Surgeons Intimate Partner Violence Committee member: screening, response, referral, and surgeons around the world. Native American health Indian Health The federal promise of health care to Tribal Nations is a promise worth keeping. Dr. Heather Logghe giving a thumbs-up beside a Stanford Neurodiversity Project sign Neurodiversity Neurodiversity in the Workplace So that neurodivergent practitioners and patients thrive. What surgery still has to learn Trauma-Informed Care Most surgeons are never taught trauma-informed care, and it shows. Health equity Health Equity Black women’s health: the numbers, the stories behind them, and what each of us can do. Burn care Burn Patient Advocacy Bringing palliative care into burn care, and learning from survivors. Co-founded with Dr. Paul Fedak #UnmaskMedicine Personal narratives about what medicine asks of the people in it. Physician mental health Physician Mental Health Making it safe for physicians to seek care.