About Us
The Public Health Advocacy Institute
The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), founded in 1979, is a legal research and advocacy center focused on public health law. It is an independent 501(c)(3) organization located at Northeastern University School of Law (NUSL). In 2019, PHAI launched UnitedOnGuns, a nonpartisan initiative that unites professionals from different disciplines (health, law enforcement, law, and government) to promote public health approaches to reduce gun violence, while respecting the rights of responsible gun owners.
Contact Us
For more information, to plan an executive briefing, or for referrals to subject matter experts who can help your city respond to a mass shooting, please contact UnitedOnGuns Director Sarah C. Peck at s.peck@phai.org.
Public Health Advocacy Institute
Attn: UnitedOnGuns
360 Huntington Ave., 117 CU
Boston, MA 02115
Our Work
In 2020-2021, we researched cities that responded to mass shootings. We interviewed mayors, staffers, law enforcement officials and others with a focus on the role of city leaders. Their experiences informed the Mass Shooting Protocol and Playbook.
In partnership with Northeastern University School of Law, we initiated legal research on the following issues:
Reducing alcohol outlet density to reduce community gun violence.
How judges and domestic violence prevention advocates can increase the rate of domestic violence protective orders that require guns to be relinquished.
Whether existing gun laws have racial bias in their passage, application, and enforcement.
Analysis of extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws in 18 jurisdictions to identify the most effective implementation approaches (see report).
We regularly brief leaders on mass shooting preparedness and response and publish op-eds promoting public health approaches to reduce gun violence.
Our Team
Sarah C. Peck is Co-founder and Director of UnitedOnGuns, a non-partisan initiative of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law (NUSL). In 2019, Ms. Peck and her team researched the role of mayors when responding to a mass shooting. Based on that research, she co-authored the Mass Shooting Protocol & Playbook: A Resource for U.S. Mayors and City Managers, which elected and appointed leaders can use to prepare for, and respond to, an incident of mass violence. Leaders in Highland Park, Oxford Village, Nashville, and other communities have reportedly used this resource to respond to a mass shooting.
As a subject matter expert, Ms. Peck regularly partners with the Center for Homeland Defense and Security and other professional organizations to help leaders prepare for mass violence incidents. Ms. Peck has briefed leaders privately and at conferences hosted by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, US Conference of Mayors, International City/County Managers Association, Mayors Innovation Project, State Legislative Leaders Foundation, Big Cities Emergency Management, Florida League of Cities, Association of California Cities – Orange County, The County of Los Angeles, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the North American Active Assailant Conference.
Ms. Peck is a regular op-ed contributor on subjects relating to mass violence. She has been interviewed by the Washington Post, NPR, Bloomberg, Politico, and others. She is also an advisor to Harvard Medical School on gun violence-related training projects and a member of the Board of the Friends of the American University of Afghanistan.
Ms. Peck served for 15 years as a U.S. diplomat, where she served in Washington and overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, and France. Prior to entering the State Department, Ms. Peck worked for eight years as an attorney. She received her BFA from the University of Florida and her JD from Northeastern University School of Law.
Mark Gottlieb, J.D., PHAI Executive Director
Mr. Gottlieb joined PHAI in 1993 after graduating from Northeastern University School of Law (NUSL). His efforts have focused on researching tobacco litigation as a public health strategy as director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, reducing the harm caused by secondhand tobacco smoke through a variety of legal and policy approaches, fostering scholarship using tobacco industry documents, examining legal and policy approaches to address obesity, and, more recently, researching public health approaches to reducing gun violence. Mark is an adjunct professor at NUSL where he teaches and operates the Public Health Legal Clinic.
Our Advisors
Richard A. Daynard, J.D., Ph.D., PHAI President
Professor Daynard holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.A. in Sociology from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in Urban Studies and Planning (specializing in Law and Social Policy). He is a University Distinguished Professor of Law at Northeastern University and the founder of the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University School of Law. Professor Daynard is devoted to combating the epidemics caused by tobacco and, more recently, obesity and gun violence. He has published over 80 articles, appeared in or been interviewed by major international media programs, and spoken on these issues in more than 50 countries.
Dr. Matthew Miller, MD, MPH, ScD, Public Health and Firearm Injury Prevention Expert
Dr. Miller, a physician, is Professor of Health Sciences and Epidemiology at Northeastern University, Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Co-Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Dr. Miller is an expert in injury and violence prevention. His research encompasses intentional and unintentional injury, with an emphasis on firearm-related violence and suicide prevention. Dr. Miller is also Assistant Editor of the journal Injury Epidemiology and a recipient of the Excellence in Science Award from the American Public Health Association.
Dr. Peter T. Masiakos, MS, MD, FACS, FAAP, Surgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Masiakos is a pediatric and thoracic surgeon at Mass General and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He is the director of the pediatric trauma surgery service at Mass General and an injury-prevention advocate. Dr. Masiakos has focused on educating lawmakers on the risks certain products pose to children. He is the co-founder of Mass General’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention, a multidisciplinary initiative dedicated to preventing firearm-related violence and promoting safety in the homes and communities of the hospital serves.
Robert A. Jones, Executive Director of Security, former FBI senior official
Mr. Jones is a 24-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His distinguished career includes domestic and international assignments, and expertise in the areas of counterterrorism, intelligence, and weapons of mass destruction. Notably, Mr. Jones was the Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office, where he led the law enforcement response to the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. He is currently the Executive Director of Security for a professional sports team. Mr. Jones received a BA in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in social science from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs. Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Jones served as a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer.
James Alan Fox, Ph.D., The Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University
Professor Fox is a widely recognized expert on mass shootings. He has published 18 books, dozens of journal and magazine articles, and hundreds of freelance columns in newspapers around the country, primarily in the areas of mass murder, youth crime, school and campus violence, workplace violence, and capital punishment. He is a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors, where his column appears regularly. In addition, he was the founding editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.
Mary Harvey, Ph.D., Director, Violence Transformed, Community Trauma Expert
Mary R. Harvey, Ph.D. is the Founding Director of Violence Transformed, a unique arts, public health and social justice initiative. In addition, Dr. Harvey is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and founding director (now retired) of the Victims of Violence (VOV) Program of the Cambridge Health Alliance. A community and clinical psychologist, she has lectured widely and written extensively about the ecological context of interpersonal and sexual violence, the treatment of psychological trauma, and expressions of recovery and resiliency in trauma survivors. She continues to serve as a Senior Psychologist at the Victims of Violence Program and, as an emerging artist, has exhibited her work at both Violence Transformed and other area venues