Our Staff
Center Leadership
Chana A. Sacks, MD, MPH, Co-Director
Chana A. Sacks, MD, MPH is a general internist in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and the co-director of the MGH Gun Violence Prevention Center. Dr. Sacks attended the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed her residency and chief residency in internal medicine at MGH. She completed a general medicine research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital while completing her MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. Since joining the faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Dr. Sacks has focused her health policy work on developing and implementing a public health approach to addressing gun violence in Boston and across the country. Dr. Sacks’ research focuses on the prevention of firearm-related injuries and suicide prevention, particularly among older adults. She is also the executive editor of NEJM Evidence.
Peter T. Masiakos, MS, MD, FACS, FAAP, Co-Director
Peter T. Masiakos, MS, MD, FACS, FAAP, is the director of Pediatric Trauma Services at Mass General for Children and co-director of the MGH Gun Violence Prevention Center. He was trained at the Boston City Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto), where he developed a clinical interest in pediatric trauma care and injury prevention. He is the director of the pediatric trauma surgery service at Mass General and has become a vocal injury-prevention advocate.
Dr. Masiakos has developed a strong interest in legislative advocacy and established strong relationships with state, federal and international legislators to enact eleven injury prevention laws, including ATV laws, junior-driver laws, child-restraint laws and gun safety laws. He has testified before the Massachusetts State Legislature, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the US Congress on the importance of legislation that prevents childhood injuries.
Hemal Sampat, MD, FAAP, FACP, FHM, HEC-C, Director of Clinician Training
Attending Physician, Hospital Medicine Unit
Core Educator Faculty, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Program Director, Medicine-Pediatrics Training Program
Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Center Staff
Celya Walker, MPH
Research Coordinator
Katherine Desmond
Administrative Coordinator
Research Collaborators
Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH, FAAP, Senior Research Investigator
Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Patricia J. O’Malley, MD, Endowed Scholar in Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Scott Hadland, MD, MPH, MS, Senior Research Investigator
Chief, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Cornelia Griggs, MD
Pediatric Surgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor in Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Rebecca Robbins, PhD
Investigator, Gun Violence Prevention Center
Associate Scientist, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Investigator, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
George Karandinos, MD, PHD
General Internal Medicine Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Primary Care Physician, MGH Chelsea
Jasper S. Lee, PhD
Post-Doctoral Research and Clinical Fellow, Behavioral Medicine Program, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Karen Donelan, ScD, EdM
Senior Scientist, MGH Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital
Chair of US Health Policy, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Brandeis University
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Thomas McCoy, MD
Physician Investigator, Center for Genomic Medicine, Mass General Research Institute
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Gun Violence Prevention Coalition
Staff members from across the hospital come together to discuss updates, brainstorm new ideas, hear guest speakers, and keep our progress aligned with our mission.
Mara Bloom, JD, MS
Vice President, Cancer Center and Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Paul Currier, MD
Co-Founder of the MGH Gun Violence Prevention Coalition
Paul is an intensive care and pulmonary physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves as the Director of the Respiratory Acute Care Unit and Director of Quality and Safety for the division. In his role as the head of Simulation and Experiential Learning for the Department of Medicine, he has helped to lead efforts in training resident physicians in how to talk to their patients about gun safety.
Gretchen Felopulos, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Staff Psychologist, Child Psychiatry & Sport Psychology Program, MGH
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
Peter Greenspan, MD
Peter Greenspan, MD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Most recently, he was Vice Chair of Pediatrics and Medical Director of the Department of Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Kate Haskins
Violence Intervention Advocacy Program (VIAP) Coordinator, Massachusetts General Hospital
Kristian Olson, MD, MPH
Director, Springboard Studio and Core Educator Faculty, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Shannon Scott-Vernaglia, MD
Associate Chief of Clinical Faculty Development, Pediatrics
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Kim Smith Sheppard, RN
Co-Founder of the MGH Gun Violence Prevention Coalition
Kim Sheppard has been a Clinical Research Nurse at MGH on White 12, the Translational Clinical Research Center(s), for 20 years. She is a principal investigator on gun violence prevention research at MGH and teaches classes on gun violence prevention to employees.
Matt Thomas
Training, Development and Communications Specialist, Police and Security, Massachusetts General Hospital
If you are interested in joining our Coalition or Research Group, or are looking for other ways to get involved, please contact our Administrative Coordinator, Katherine Desmond, at kdesmond2@mgh.harvard.edu.