2023 E.R. Brown Symposium: Addressing Gun Violence as a Public Health Epidemic

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research hosted the 2023 E.R. Brown Symposium: Addressing Gun Violence as a Public Health Epidemic on Monday, February 13, 2023, on Zoom.
The symposium brought together an outstanding group of researchers, advocates, community leaders, and policymakers working to understand and stem gun violence, and sharing new research and perspectives to inform policy and programs to increase public safety.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta provided the keynote address and shared his vision for how policy can make a difference in the state.
Featured panelists and speakers included:
​Joan Asarnow, Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Kerith Conron, Research Director, Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
Christian Heyne, Gun violence survivor and Vice President of Policy and Programs, Brady
Chris Knoepke, Assistant Professor, Research, University of Colorado Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus
Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, Assistant Professor, Violence Prevention Research Program, UC Davis
Brian Malte, Executive Director, Hope and Heal Fund
Julie Nagasako, Deputy Director, Office of Policy and Planning, California Department of Public Health
Mark A. Peterson, Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
Jesenia Pizarro, Editor, Homicide Studies, and Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University
Fernando Rejón, Executive Director, Urban Peace Institute
Refujio “Cuco” Rodriguez, Chief Equity and Program Officer, Hope and Heal Fund
Michael Rodriguez, Director, California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity
George Tita, Professor, Criminology, Law, and Society, UC Irvine
Andrea Welsing, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Office of Violence Prevention
Ninez Ponce, UCLA CHPR director and chair of the Health Policy and Management Department at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, provided opening and closing remarks and moderated the event.
The E.R. Brown Symposium, named after UCLA CHPR founder E. Richard "Rick" Brown, is an annual event that honors the life of Rick Brown, who spent his life advocating strongly for a health-care-for-all system that would ensure health services for every Californian.
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The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR is home to the California Health Interview Survey, the largest state health survey in the nation, which interviews more than 20,000 Californians each year on a broad range of health topics.
Established in 1994, UCLA CHPR is based in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and affiliated with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research improves the public's health by advancing health policy through research, public service, community partnership, and education.