Dr. Joseph Sakran

MD, MPH, MPA, FACS, Executive Vice Chair of Surgery, Director of Clinical Operations of Surgery and Associate Professor of Surgery and Nursing, Johns Hopkins Medicine, USA Trauma Surgery
Biography keyboard_arrow_down

Dr. Sakran is a trailblazer and nationally respected voice in the firearm injury prevention movement. He is currently the Executive Vice Chair of Surgery, Director of Clinical Operations, Director of Emergency General Surgery, and Associate Professor of Surgery and Nursing at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. As a survivor of firearm-related violence, he was motivated to become a surgeon, researcher, and advocate in firearm injury prevention. At every turn of his career, he has used his personal experience and substantial skills to push a new frontier primarily in service of marginalized communities in the United States. The Academy Health recognized his research on firearm-related injury with the Outstanding Article of the Year Award. Dr. Sakran served as a National Academy of Medicine Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate during the COVID-19 pandemic guiding historic legislation. As a Senior Fellow at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Dr. Sakran was instrumental in creation of the Health Equity Tracker. In 2019, Dr. Sakran was named a Presidential Leadership Scholar in which he furthered his research on safe gun storage. He was also a 2020 recipient of Johns Hopkins' Catalyst Award for his pioneering research on physicians' role in educating patients on safe gun storage. He was instrumental in helping shepherd the legislation that led to the passage of the first federal firearm injury prevention legislation in nearly 30 years, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Dr. Sakran was instrumental in laying the foundation for the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention that was launched by President Biden in September of 2023. He has demonstrated & trained healthcare professionals on how to effectively communicate the data & science to drive social change. He has testified before U.S. Congress, and other Federal and State agencies on Firearm injury prevention. Most recently, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for his innovative work and exceptional leadership in firearm injury prevention, which has been most instrumental in establishing the urgency and intellectual foundation to drive research and evidence-based policy change at the local, state, and federal level.