Join us as we take a deep dive into the intersection of gun violence, homelessness, and emergency care. Gun violence disproportionately impacts people experiencing homelessness and those from marginalized communities, and our guests bring frontline clinical experience, public health expertise, and advocacy leadership to this conversation.
Kyle Takach is a fourth-year medical student at the Stritch School of Medicine, where he serves as Student Course Director of the Disability Healthcare Elective and President of Students Against Gun Violence Prevention. He is joined by two distinguished guests with extensive experience in gun violence prevention advocacy.
Dr. Kristen Donaldson is an emergency medicine physician, Associate Professor at Loyola University Chicago, and President-Elect of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians. With formal training in public health and years of experience caring for patients affected by violence, Dr. Donaldson is a public health and violence prevention advocate both for her patients and for emergency room staff, who is actively engaged in advocacy efforts at the state and national levels.
Dr. Halleh Akbarnia is an emergency medicine physician with over two decades of experience at Level I Trauma Centers and a survivor of gun violence herself. She chairs the Community Health and Prevention committee, overseeing the Gun Violence Prevention Subcommittee with Doctors for America. Dr. Akbarnia is involved with organizations like Newtown Action Alliance, Moms Demand Action, and recently This is Our Lane, and is a member of the Illinois Alliance for Prevention of Gun Violence. Dr. Akbarnia is an active member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and serves as a Board Member for the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians.
Together, our guests discuss how gun violence and homelessness are deeply intertwined, and how emergency departments and street medicine teams encounter these realities.
For more information about Loyola's gun violence advocacy efforts, please visit: https://www.luc.edu/parkinson/researchandpractice/loyolastandsagainstgunviolence/
