September 22, 2022

As the rain cleared Sept. 6, hundreds of bright orange ribbons could be seen hanging on the branches of a tree on the corner of Penn and Lombard streets. The orange symbolized awareness of gun violence, and each ribbon represented a life lost to gun violence in Baltimore this past year. The ribbons were the backdrop of a news conference announcing the launch of the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Center for Violence Prevention. “We’re confident that taking a research-based approach is the answer,” UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, said in his opening remarks. “Using our resources combined with the families and communities affected by violence is how we begin to start solving this problem.” Funded by a $2 million gift from Betsy Sherman and the Sherman Family Foundation, the Center for Violence Prevention seeks to intervene, reduce, and respond to violence in the city, bringing together the expertise of the faculty at the UMB schools of medicine, social work, and law with that of the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.

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Depicted: Thomas M. Scalea, MD, the Honorable Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Trauma Surgery, director of the Program in Trauma at the School of Medicine, and physician-in-chief at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, speaks at the Center for Violence Prevention news conference.