Firearm Injury Prevention Team

Dr. Megan L. Ranney is an emergency physician, researcher, and national advocate for innovative approaches to public health. She joined Yale in July 2023 as the Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health. Dr. Ranney’s research focuses on developing, testing, and disseminating digital health interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health problems, as well as on COVID-related risk reduction. She has held multiple national leadership roles, including Co-Founder and Senior Strategic Advisor for the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) at the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit committed to ending the gun violence epidemic through a non-partisan public health approach, and Co-Founder of GetUsPPE, a start-up nonprofit that delivered donated personal protective equipment to those who needed it most. She is a Fellow of the fifth class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Opioid Abatement Trust. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. She has received numerous awards for technology innovation, public health, and research, including Rhode Island “Woman of the Year” and the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Policy Pioneer Award. A leading public voice on urgent topics in health and medicine, she offers expert analysis through testimony to Congress and guidance for non-governmental organizations. She is a frequent media commentator and author of op-eds for outlets that include the BBC, CNN, The Atlantic, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Prior to arriving at Yale, Dr. 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. Dr. Ranney earned her bachelor's degree in history of science, graduating summa cum laude, from Harvard University; her medical doctorate, graduating Alpha Omega Alpha, from Columbia University; and her master’s degree in public health from Brown 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.

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 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 a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Science and Health of DePaul University. She currently chairs the board of the Stop Abuse Campaign. Previously, she was the Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC. At Yale, she was Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health and was the 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 a 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, and was named 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.