Virginia A. Caine, M.D., 125th President, National Medical Association
Virginia A. Caine, MD is the Director and Chief Medical Officer of the Marion County Public Health Department. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine Infectious Diseases Division. She is the Past President of American Public Health Association, President of the National Medical Association (NMA), Chair of the Infectious Diseases Section, and member of the NMA and Indiana COVID-19 Task Forces. Recently appointed a member of the federal committee for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Board of Scientific Counselors, Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases. In 2020, the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) named her as one of 40 Influential People of the past 40 years, as they celebrated 40 Years of Progress in Indianapolis.
Dr. Caine works tirelessly to promote and advance public health through innovative programs and unprecedented collaborations. Her boundless energy, vision, and drive to serve people, especially disadvantaged areas, have led Dr. Caine to have her fingerprints on numerous projects. She helped set up the first HIV/AIDS healthcare delivery system of all major hospitals in Indianapolis.
Senator Dick Durbin, U.S. Senate
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, is the 47th U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois, the state’s senior senator, and the convener of Illinois’ bipartisan congressional delegation. Durbin also serves as the Senate Democratic Whip, the second highest ranking position among the Senate Democrats. Senator Durbin has been elected to this leadership post by his Democratic colleagues every two years since 2005. Durbin serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and sits on the Appropriations and Agriculture Committees. Elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996, and re-elected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020, Durbin fills the seat left vacant by the retirement of his long-time friend and mentor, U.S. Senator Paul Simon. Senator Durbin makes approximately 50 round trips a year between Washington and Illinois. He is married to Loretta Schaefer Durbin. Their family consists of three children–Christine (deceased), Paul, and Jennifer–as well as six grandchildren. They reside in Springfield.
Michael McGee, M.D., Chair, NMA Violence Prevention Council; Medical Director, Emergency Department; President, Medical Staff; University of Chicago Medicine
Dr. Michael McGee is a compassionate, caring physician who has been practicing emergency medicine since 2004. He graduated from Purdue University where he completed a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology/Psychology. Dr. McGee later achieved a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Illinois in Chicago, a Medical Doctorate from Rush Medical College in Chicago, and completed his Internship and Residency in the Department of Emergency Medicine at New York University (NYU) / Bellevue Hospital Medical Center in New York, NY. Upon completion of residency, Dr. McGee worked as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory/Grady Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia. In March of 2010, he became the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an independent Methodist ER Group called Northwest Emergency Associates (NEA), LLC. In 2019 NEA merged with Vituity Healthcare and Dr. McGee currently functions as the Chairman for the Emergency Medicine Departments at Methodist Hospitals in Gary and Merrillville, Indiana. He is also the President and Chief Executive Officer (CE) of Premier Urgent Care and Occupational Health Center which is the first private comprehensive Urgent Care Center in Hyde Park. At a recent conference of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), Dr. McGee was selective as the Chair of the Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention Committee of the ACEP Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity (DIHE) Section. He was recently appointed as the National Chair for the Violence Prevention Action Committee for 100 Black Men of America, as well as, COVID Chair for Health and Wellness Committee for 100 Black Men of Chicago. In 2020, Dr. McGee received special recognition for his work with Firearm Violence which included: The National Medical Association, EM Section, Tamara O’Neal, MD Social Justice Award, Vituity Dr. Wes Curry Award in Social Justice, February Healthcare Hero Recognition Award by Vituity, and the Rush Medical College Black History Month Graduate Spotlight.
Due to his public health background, Dr. McGee supports various youth programs focused on violence prevention within the communities of NWI and Chicago. He created a youth health awareness and violence prevention outreach program called Project Outreach and Prevent (POP) on Teen Violence, Inc. In April 2014, he partnered with Dr Reuben Rutland, the Chief of Trauma of Methodist Hospital, and together they incorporated POP on Teen Violence and established 501c3 tax-exempt status. A component of this program includes a mentoring program called Health Professions Enrichment Program (HPEP), as well as the Merit Health Scholarship program for graduating minority high students pursuing careers in medicine, dentistry, or nursing. Dr. McGee, as well as, his other 2 partners (Dr. Airron Richardson and Dr. Reuben C Rutland who both serve on the Board of Directors of P.O.P. on Teen Violence, Inc) have all pledged to donate a percentage of the profits made at Premier Urgent Care and OccHealth Center to this non-profit organization to help assist the communities of Chicago with efforts to combat youth violence.
Dr. McGee has received multiple awards and honors. He is a member of multiple organizations, such as the American Medical Association, National Medical Association, Cook County Physicians Association, Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity Incorporated, etc. and has a Brown Belt in Shodokan Karate.
Cong. Robin Kell, U.S. House of Representatives
Congresswoman Robin Kelly has dedicated her career to public service as an advocate for Illinois families. Since being elected to serve the 2nd Congressional District in 2013, she has worked to expand economic opportunity, community wellness, and public safety across the state, championing numerous initiatives to generate job growth, reduce health disparities, and end gun violence.
Congresswoman Kelly is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (the main policy-writing body of the House) and serves on the Health, Communications and Technology, and Innovation, Data, and Commerce subcommittees. Her Energy and Commerce work is focused on expanding access to healthcare, consumer protection for American families, and economic development.
She is also a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which sets the policy direction of the Democratic Caucus.
A staunch champion of common sense gun reforms and responsible community policing, Representative Kelly is a Co-Chair of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Taskforce and is the author of The 2014 Kelly Report on Gun Violence in America, the first-ever Congressional analysis of the nation’s gun violence epidemic that offers a blueprint for ending the crisis.
Committed to improving the health and wellness of vulnerable communities across the country, the Congresswoman serves as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, and Co-Chairs the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls. She also Co-Chairs the House Democratic Policy Group and House Tech Accountability Caucus.
Prior to her election to Congress, Kelly was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, served as Chief Administrative Officer of Cook County (the second largest county in the United States) and was Chief of Staff to Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias – becoming the first African American woman to serve as Chief of Staff to an elected constitutional statewide officeholder.
The daughter of a small business owner and postal worker, Congresswoman Kelly moved to Illinois to attend Bradley University in Peoria, where she earned her B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in counseling. She later received a Ph.D. in political science from Northern Illinois University. She is also an active member of Sigma Gamma Rho, a historically Black sorority. She lives in the south suburbs of Chicago and has two adult children.
Arne Duncan, Managing Director – Emerson Collective
Arne Duncan served as U.S. Secretary of Education from January 2009 through December 2015 as part of the Obama Administration. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Duncan served as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools. From 2001 to 2008, Duncan won praise for uniting the city’s stakeholders behind an education agenda that included opening 100 new schools; expanding after-school, summer learning, early childhood, and college access programs; dramatically boosting the caliber of teachers; and building public-private partnerships around a variety of education initiatives.
He currently leads Chicago CRED, a nonprofit trying to achieve a transformative reduction in gun violence in Chicago. Through partnerships with local business leaders, community organizers, and nonprofit groups, Duncan aims to provide outreach, therapeutic, education, and employment opportunities for the young men most likely to be engaged in gun violence. He is also the managing partner at Emerson Collective, an organization dedicated to removing barriers so people can live to their full potential. Secretary Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in sociology. At Harvard he served as co-captain of the basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American.
Arne serves on the boards of Ariel Investments, Communities in Schools, Eat. Learn. Play., Edmentum, Education Advancement, ESS, Howard University, Metropolitan Family Services, MGT Consulting Group, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Peace for DC, Schoolhouse.world, and Chairs The Hunt Institute.
Greg Jackson, Former Dep. Director/White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention; Advocate for Safer Communities; Expert in Gun Violence Prevention
Gregory Jackson is the President of the Rocket Foundation. Prior to the Rocket Foundation, Jackson served as the deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and special assistant to President Joe Biden, where he oversaw efforts to implement federal law, identify new executive actions, expand partnerships, and improve services for those traumatized by gun violence. In this role, Gregory oversaw the execution of 54 executive actions, the implementation of the first law on gun violence in 30 years and secured $242 billion in federal resources to address gun violence resulting in the steepest declines in homicides in U.S. history for two consecutive years.
A gun violence survivor himself, Jackson has been a leading voice, policymaker and activist on gun violence prevention for Black and Brown communities for over a decade. Previously, he served as executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund, which advances policies to address gun violence in these communities. Prior to this work he worked locally advancing public safety efforts as the youngest cabinet member under the Mayor, serving as Director of Community Relations. Prior to his work in public safety, Greg led multiple candidate and issue organizing efforts, most notably serving as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee national field director, where Jackson ran the largest midterm election voter registration program in U.S. history.
Selwyn Rogers, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., James E. Bowman Jr. Professor of Surgery; Chief, Section of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery; Founding Director, Trauma Center; Executive Vice President for Community Health Engagement
After an extensive national search, Selwyn Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, was named the section chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine in January 2017. He now serves as the Dr. James E. Bowman, Jr. Professor in the Biological Sciences at The University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Rogers is an acclaimed trauma and critical care surgeon and public health expert who has served in leadership capacities at health centers across the country, including most recently as vice president and chief medical officer for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Rogers has also served as the chair of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine and as the division chief of Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care at Harvard Medical School. While at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), he helped launch the Center for Surgery and Public Health to understand the nature, quality, and utilization of surgical care nationally and internationally.
Dr. Rogers is a prolific researcher, and his work seeks to improve quality and access to care for all parents. Among other topics, his published research has looked at the impact of race and ethnicity on surgical outcomes. He is committed to improving the understanding of disparities in surgical care to close the quality chasm for underserved populations and provide the most patient-centered care possible. Beyond trauma and surgical critical care, Dr. Rogers has been an advocate for treating intentional violence as a public health problem. In partnership with the Center for Community Health and Health Equity at BWH, he developed a violence intervention and prevention program that worked to address the social factors that put patients at increased risk for trauma and mortality, such as poverty, hopelessness, and lack of opportunity. The program partners with organizations in Boston to educate youth about community violence and connects victims with the resources they need to heal. Here at the University of Chicago Medicine, he helped to launch the Violence Recovery Program in conjunction with the Urban Health Initiative.
Dr. Rogers earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard College magna cum laude and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed both his surgery residency and an NIH research fellowship
in surgical oncology at BWH in Boston. He completed a surgical critical care fellowship at Massachusetts General
Hospital and BWH. Additionally, Dr. Rogers has a master’s degree in public health from Vanderbilt University
Curtis Amir Toler, Director of CVI Innovation – Chicago CRED
A Chicago native and the former leader of one of the city’s most notorious street gangs, Curtis Toler serves as Director of CVI Innovation for Chicago CRED. He is committed to impacting the culture of violence in Chicago by linking at-risk young men with chances to reset their lives through job training and permanent employment opportunities.
Before joining CRED, Curtis was a gang-intervention specialist and spokesman for the peacemakers at the Faith Community of St. Sabina Church. He worked as a lead trainer and community liaison for the National Center for Violence Interruption and as an outreach supervisor at Ceasefire. Curtis also worked as a co-creator and coach for the Chicago Peace Basketball League. The league uses the game of basketball as a tool for reshaping the mindsets of young men, encouraging them to embrace nonviolent methods to solve disagreements.
A member of the Community Justice Task Force and a Chicago Gang Historian, Curtis has received recognition from the State of Illinois Senate for his leadership efforts to bring peace to the streets, his commitment to improving the quality of life in the community, as well as for his commitment to advocating for positive changes to reduce violence in our neighborhoods. He’s also a lecturer and motivational speaker around the issues of violence at high schools, universities, and community-based organizations all over the country, and plans to create non-traditional methods of peace that can lay the foundation for a curriculum for teaching the practice of peace in urban centers struggling with gun violence.
Crystal Garrant, Chief Program Officer, Sandy Hook Promise
Crystal E. Garrant (né Brown) serves as the Chief Program Officer for Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. Crystal has 18+ years of youth development experience in the education and non-profit sectors, leading organizational strategies across an array of whole-child development topics to include youth safety and well-being, grief & bereavement, disability inclusion, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Crystal is a firm believer that relationships are at the center of well-being and that when youth feel better, they are better able to achieve positive academic, social, and emotional outcomes. She holds a Dual Bachelor of Science in African American Studies and Sociology from Eastern Michigan University, a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from Capella University, and a Master of Education Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Crystal lives in Atlanta with her husband Julius and eight-year-old daughter, Jubilee.
Anthony Smith, Executive Director – Cities United
Anthony D. Smith is an organizer, a bridge builder, a believer in community, and a thought leader. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Cities United – under his leadership, the organization has partnered with 100’s of cities who are working to create safe, healthy, and hopeful communities for young Black men and boys, and their families.
Before joining Cities United, Anthony led the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods for Mayor Greg Fischer and the City of Louisville. Throughout his professional career he has made a priority of creating positive outcomes for youth and cultivating up and coming Black leaders. Anthony was born, raised and still lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife and family. Anthony earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with a minor in Legal Studies from Northern Kentucky University.
Abdullah Hasan Pratt, M.D., Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine; The University of Chicago Medical Center; Founder of MedCEEP and TRAP Violence; ACEP Vice Chair of Violence Prevention and Firearms Safety
Dr. Abdullah Hasan Pratt, is an Assistant Professor and Emergency Medicine Physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Known as “Dee”; Dr. Pratt’s goal has always been to have a career advocating for underserved communities and addressing systemic healthcare disparities. It has been the 33 years of experiences over his lifetime as a resident of Chicago’s Southside that have shaped and guided his career to this point. He attributes this commitment to his childhood experiences witnessing the poor health conditions, premature deaths, and day to day struggles from a lack of access to proper healthcare by the people he cared about. As an Emergency Medicine physician, he continues to vigorously work to improve health literacy and emergency preparedness through teaching South-Side residents how to properly respond to cardiac arrests, gunshot wounds, and mental health crisis. This has culminated in his founding of The Medical Careers Exposure and a emergency Preparedness (MedCEEP) Initiative and the Trauma Recovery And Prevention of Violence Program (TRAP Violence).
Awards
- Pritzker School of Medicine Faculty of the year in May 2022
- Valparaiso University 1st Decade Achievement Award
- AAMC Gold humanism award for patient care 2023
- 2023 UChicago MBSAA Distinguished Alumni Award for Early Achievement
- 2023 Modern Healthcare Top 25 Emerging leaders in healthcare award
- 2023 Gatlin Institute Chicago Peace Fellow
- 2023 Bowman Society Awardee and Keynote Presenter (July 27th 2023)
- 2023 Alumni Donation of $240,000 From the Whitney Family for TRAP Violence Research and my Faculty Development
Organization Accomplishments
- Founded a 501c3 nonprofit The MedCEEP Initiative
- Won the 2022 Obama Foundation MBK Violence Free Summer Grant. $15,000
- Won the UChicago Civic Engagement Innovations in STEM Grant. $25,000
- 2023 Alumni Donation of $240,000 From the Whitney Family for TRAP Violence Research and my Faculty Development
- Won the Block Hassenfeld Casdin (BHC) Family Trauma Resilience Grant. $27,330
- Uchicago Juneteenth Grant $5,000
- Served as guest representative for the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper. Model Communities summit with President Obama
- Won The 2023 Obama Foundation MBK Freedom Summer Grant. $30,000
- Won the UChocago Women’s Board Grant. $72,000
- Invited and Currently applying for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois $100,000 initial funding.
- Invited to feature our Emergency Medicine Clinical Bootcamp at ACEP 2023 National Conference.
- Invited and Submitted NIH Diversity Supplement Grant $100,000 May 2023
Research
- Will be 3rd Author on accepted paper in Pediatrics Clinics of N America “Addressing Violence in Pediatric Practice”
- July 2023: Will be 1st Author on accepted Publication of a response letter Annals of Emergency Medicine “Community Response Programs: The real question is “Are they scalable”
- 2 active manuscripts on data collected through emergency preparedness workshops and our summer pipeline program.
MedCEEP and TRAP Violence Impact Thus Far:
- Over 7,000 Under Represented Minority Youth trained in gunshot wound management.
- Over 500 Chicago Public School students exposed to medical careers
- 100 students served through our 6-8 week summer and winter pipeline programs
- Hundreds of students currently enrolled in nursing, EMT, or premedical sciences
- Over 500 Free Sports Physicals for youth who had no access.
- Over 600 Students exposed to mental health awareness, trauma informed care and conflict resolution skills through TRAP Violence
- Hundreds of Pritzker Students and UCMC residents exposed to volunteer opportunities to improve health equity.
