Firearm Injury Prevention Team

Dr. Megan L. Ranney is an emergency physician, researcher, and leading advocate for innovative approaches to public health. She is the Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, the C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health, and a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Yale University. Dr. Ranney is the first Dean to lead YSPH since it became a fully independent graduate institution in 2024, with a new strategic vision of linking science and society, making public health foundational to communities everywhere. Dr. Ranney’s career has been driven by her front-row seat to preventable public health crises, from her formative years in the Peace Corps to her 20+ years as a practicing emergency medicine physician. Whether addressing motor vehicle injuries and firearm violence, HIV and COVID-19, or the importance of healthcare access, her first-hand experiences have fueled her commitment to high-quality science and making sure the science is used and understood by communities across the globe. Research: Her research, which centers on interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health problems, with a particular focus on the role of social media and digital health, has been published over 200 times, in leading journals including NEJM, JAMA, Nature, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Annals of Emergency Medicine. She has served as principal investigator for numerous grants from NIH, CDC, and foundations and has launched numerous mentees into successful research careers. Leadership: Dr. Ranney was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) for her scientific contributions to the fields of firearm injury prevention and digital health and for her translation of health policy and behavioral science theory to COVID-related risk reduction. Within NAM, Dr. Ranney serves as co-chair of the Firearm Injury Prevention Special Interest Group; is a member of the planning committee for the NASEM Forum on Gun Violence Prevention; and serves as chair of the selection committee for the National Academies' Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communication. She is also an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dean Ranney has given dozens of international keynotes for academic and non-academic audiences. She has helped shape bipartisan policy and public opinion with multiple Congressional testimonies and provided expertise to the U.S. Surgeon General and the White House across multiple presidential administrations. She also provides guidance to international non-governmental organizations and private corporations. Dr. Ranney founded two nonprofits (AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute and GetUsPPE) and serves as a board member on many organizations that work to curb violence, promote health communication, and improve global health. She is a founding board member of the Research Society for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms. She sits on the Milken Institute Public Health Advisory Board, The Commonwealth Fund’s Health Equity advisory committee, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education advisory council, and is a Trustee for the National Opioid Abatement Trust-II. She is a graduate of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Communications: Dr. Ranney is a nationally recognized figure in the media with hundreds of national and international appearances that translate public health messages and science to the public. She has appeared in outlets ranging from CNN and Fox News to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as leading national Substack columns and podcasts. Awards: Dean Ranney has received numerous awards for technology innovation, public health, and research, including the Ira Hiscock Award in 2024 for her outstanding leadership in public health; the RockHealth “Top 50 in Digital Health” award in 2023; Rhode Island’s “Woman of the Year” in 2021; and the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Policy Pioneer Award in 2018. Academia: Prior to arriving at Yale, Dean Ranney served as Deputy Dean at the Brown University School of Public Health; the Warren Alpert Endowed Professor of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University; and the Founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health. She remains an adjunct faculty member at Brown University. Education: Dr. Ranney earned her MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she graduated as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She holds an MPH from Brown University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in the history of science (summa cum laude) from Harvard University. She completed her residency in emergency medicine and a fellowship in injury prevention research at Brown University. She was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d'Ivoire.

Nelba holds a Bachelor of Music from the Hartt School and a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from St. Joseph College. Nelba taught and supervised at the Family Therapy program at the University of Winnipeg’s Aurora Family Therapy Centre and later worked as the Coordinator for Klingberg Family Therapy Center’s outpatient child and adolescent psychiatric clinic. She also served as adjunct faculty at Central Connecticut State University. Nelba founded the CTAMFT (Connecticut Association for Marriage and Family Therapy) Diversity Committee and served on the CTAMFT Board of Directors. For her advocacy, she received the 2004 Minority Fellowship Award by the AAMFT, the 2004 Distinguished Professional Service Award, and the 2013 Service to Families Award by the CTAMFT. In 2017 she was awarded the Key to the Centre award at the Aurora family Therapy Centre in Winnipeg, MB. In 2018, she was profiled as one of “100 Women of Color” and a YWCA (CT) Women’s Leadership Award recipient. She was featured in People Magazine’s October 2019 issue as one of Ten Women Changing the World and also recognized by Chelsea Clinton and Hillary Clinton in their Book of Gutsy Women. Nelba has testified and advocated at the state and federal levels on many different mental health initiatives, hosted TEDx talks, and is a nationally sought after speaker. In the many years that have followed, stints in advocacy, public policy, community care, etc. have affirmed her core belief that in order to change the world through policy and research we must also take care of people. Public health practices can do both.

Ian Ayres is a lawyer and an economist. He is the William K. Townsend Professor of Law at Yale Law School and a Professor at Yale’s School of Management. Professor Ayres has been a columnist for Forbes magazine, a commentator on public radio’s Marketplace, and a contributor to theNew York Times' Freakonomics blog. He has served as the editor of theJournal of Law, Economics and Organization. Professor Ayres clerked for the Honorable James K. Logan of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has previously taught at Harvard, Illinois, Northwestern, Stanford, and Virginia law schools. Professor Ayres has published eleven books and more than 100 articles on a wide range of topics. URL: http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/ianayres.htm

Dr. Degutis, a native of Chicago, received her Bachelor of Science degree from DePaul University, and her MSN and DrPH from Yale University. She is a consultant in injury and violence prevention and policy, public health preparedness, and public health policy. Some of her current work focuses on suicide prevention in veterans, and firearm violence prevention, as well as public health practice. She is former Executive Director of Defense Health Horizons, a program of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, based at the Uniformed Services University. In addition, she was the Chief Science Officer and Board Chair for The Avielle Foundation. She chaired the Board of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), is past president of the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR), and chairs the Advisory Board of the College of Science and Health of DePaul University. She is also on the Advisory Board for the Systems for Action Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and currently chairs the board of the Stop Abuse Campaign. She serves on the editorial board of Injury Epidemiology, and is a member of the international advisory board of the journal Public Health. In addition, she is an advisor to the MENA program, which is based in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale. Dr. Degutis is former Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC. In her previous role at Yale, she was Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health, Research Director for Emergency Medicine, and Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing and Director and Co-PI of the Yale Center for Public Health Preparedness, which designed and implemented education in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. She served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the Office of the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN). She is a Past President of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the oldest and largest public health association in the world. Dr. Degutis, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship Alumni, has received the Distinguished Career and Public Service Awards from the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of APHA, received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Yale School of Public Health, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. Her work has focused on public health policy, injury and violence, gun violence prevention, suicide prevention, substance abuse and policy, as well as disaster preparedness and mitigation.

Sarah Lowe, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health, with secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Nursing. Her research focuses on the long-term mental health consequences of a range of potentially traumatic events, as well as the impact of such events on other domains of functioning, such as physical health, social relationships, and economic wellbeing. Her work explores the mechanisms leading from trauma exposure to symptoms, and the role of factors at various ecological levels – from genetics to neighborhoods – in shaping risk and resilience. She uses a range of methodologies to achieve her research aims, including structural equation modeling, latent growth curve analysis, geospatial modeling, and qualitative analysis, among others.  Dr. Lowe received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Boston and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training program at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Dr. Danielle (Dani) Poole is the Director of Research at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab and a Genocide and Atrocity Prevention Research Fellow at the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She is a population health scientist notable for her contributions to the evidence base for violence prevention and mitigation. Dr. Poole’s international work includes leveraging remote sensing to conduct humanitarian needs assessments and to quantify patterns of war, including attacks on healthcare. Domestically, Dr. Poole leads research identifying and mitigating risk factors for firearm injuries with a focus on children in Connecticut and Tennessee. To address these lines of inquiry, Dr. Poole applies methodological approaches spanning the epidemiological, geospatial, and biostatistical sciences. Findings from her work have been featured at numerous conferences, including meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as peer-reviewed and popular media publications. Dr. Poole completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Neukom Institute for Computational Science of Dartmouth College. She earned a ScD from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, an MPH from Brown University, and a BA from Seattle University.

Dr. Guangyu Tong is an Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and holds a secondary appointment as Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health. He currently directs the Cardiovascular Medicine Analytics Center (CMAC), which serves as a vital hub for study design and analytic support across Yale’s cardiovascular research community. Dr. Tong also holds research roles across several interdisciplinary initiatives, including faculty affiliations with the Center for Methods of Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS), the Data Management and Statistics Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC-DMSC), the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), and the Interdepartmental Foci of Firearm Injury Prevention (FIP)—a university-wide initiative aimed at cross-sector collaboration to reduce firearm-related harm. On the national stage, he contributes to editorial leadership as Statistical Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and Associate Editor for BMC Medicine. He is frequently invited to present his work at scientific conferences and institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia. He is a recognized contributor to numerous NIH-funded trials and global health studies in cardiovascular medicine and implementation science. His work bridges the development of innovative statistical methods with real-world implementation in medicine and public health. At the core of Dr. Tong’s methodological expertise is the design and analysis of pragmatic trials, especially cluster randomized trials (CRTs), individually randomized group treatment trials (IRGTs), and stepped wedge cluster randomized trials (SW-CRTs). His research has led to major advances in sample size estimation, treatment effect heterogeneity, and complex trial designs with unequal cluster sizes or truncated outcomes. His methodological research has advanced how such trials are powered, especially under real-world constraints like unequal cluster sizes, outcome truncation, or heterogeneous intraclass correlations. He has contributed to methods for modified Poisson models in binary outcomes, generalized estimating equations, and the planning of trials with complex multilevel structures. His methodological work has routinely appeared in journals such as Annals of Applied Statistics, Statistics in Medicine, Statistical Methods in Medical Research, Biometrical Journal, American Journal of Epidemiology, Clinical Trials, and Contemporary Clinical Trials, where he has helped shape best practices for evaluating treatment heterogeneity, sample size calculation under complex clustering, and design in real-world interventions. He is an experienced biostatistician in the design and analysis of multiple NIH-funded pragmatic trials, including PULESA-UGANDA (UG3-HL154501), TRANSFORM-HF (U01-HL125511), TRUE HAVEN (R01MD017526), G4H (R01CE003267), iDOVE2 (R01HD093655), WISHES (R18HS029812), C4+3MV (R01MH138225), and HPTN096 (UM1AI068619). In parallel, Dr. Tong is an expert in Bayesian statistics and causal inference, developing advanced techniques to handle post-randomization complications such as death censoring and outcome heterogeneity. Supported by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI ME-2020C1-19220), he developed hierarchical Bayesian models for cluster trials with varying outcome variance and led the creation of frameworks to estimate survivor average causal effects (SACE), particularly in trials where mortality precludes full data collection. This series of work had earned his recognition as a 2023 Faculty Scholar with the National Institute on Aging's IMPACT Collaboratory. Additionally, he co-developed PSweight, a widely used R package for flexible propensity score weighting analysis that supports multiple arm comparison, survey weights, and machine learning methods, reinforcing his commitment to transparent, reproducible causal inference methods in observational research. Another major pillar of Dr. Tong’s work focuses on cardiovascular medicine, where he serves as biostatistician and co-investigator on several high-impact studies. He led several statistical analyses of pooled data from the REVIVED-BCIS2 and STICH trials, providing comparative effectiveness insights on PCI vs. CABG for ischemic heart failure. Under the global health setting, he has also contributed to understanding education-based disparities in cardiovascular health across 36 low- and middle-income countries. His collaborations span randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses—such as identifying optimal pharmacologic strategies to prevent postoperative delirium through Bayesian network modeling—highlighting both his clinical relevance and statistical innovation. Beyond his work in cardiovascular medicine and trial methodology, Dr. Tong has developed a line of research focused on mental health and firearm injury prevention, areas that lie at the intersection of public safety, trauma, and health equity. He serves as a biostatistician on federally funded intervention studies, including G4H (R01CE003267) and iDOVE2 (R01HD093655), which aim to prevent youth firearm injury, peer violence, and depressive symptoms through school- and community-based interventions. These projects integrate both epidemiologic modeling and implementation science, and Dr. Tong’s contributions ensure rigorous analytic frameworks are applied to measure intervention effectiveness and longitudinal outcomes. In addition, Dr. Tong serves as a senior statistician for the Great Smoky Mountain Study (GSMS; R01MH117559)—a landmark, multi-decade longitudinal cohort that tracks children from adolescence into adulthood. Through this role, he has co-authored over ten publications examining how early exposures—such as cardiometabolic health, access to firearms, experiences of violent victimization, or involvement with psychiatric and juvenile justice systems—shape long-term mental health, criminal, functional, cardiometabl outcomes, and firearm-related behaviors. His work has directly informed policy debates around “red flag” laws, age-based firearm restrictions, and trauma-informed interventions. These studies not only bring together multiple NIH priority areas—child mental health, firearm injury prevention, and health disparities—but also showcase Dr. Tong’s capacity to lead methodologically sophisticated, socially impactful research. His analytical approaches combine causal inference, longitudinal modeling, missing data, and time-to-event modeling to support evidence-based, ethically sound public health strategies.