JOIN US FOR OUR
National Launch Event!
Monday, March 17, 2025
12pm PT / 3pm ET • Zoom
Register Here!
Join us for this historic launch and hear from renowned experts, advocates, and leaders, and chart the path forward. Speakers include policymakers, public health professionals, authors, and national and global advocates—all dedicated to advancing gun responsibility.
National Launch
Grandmothers for Gun Responsibility
Our Voices, Our Stories, Our Actions Can Save Lives
Event Details
When:
Monday, March 17, 2025
Time:
Eastern Time Zone: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
(Pacific Time Zone: 12:00pm – 1:00pm )
Zoom Link:
(RSVP to receive link)
Questions?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us.
See you on Monday, March 17!
Meet the Presenters
Senator
Bill Bradley
Former U.S. Senator (NJ)
NBA Champion,
Playwright, Author
Senator William W. Bradley is a Managing Director at Allen & Company LLC. He previously served as Senior Advisor at JP Morgan and as chief advisor to McKinsey & Company’s nonprofit practice. Bradley was a U.S. Senator from New Jersey (1979-1997) and ran for President in 2000. A former Olympic gold medalist and NBA champion with the New York Knicks, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds degrees from Princeton and Oxford. Bradley hosts “American Voices” on Sirius XM and premiered his performative autobiography, Rolling Along, at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival which streams on Max and his YouTube channel
LaShawnDa
Pittman, PhD
Associate Professor,
University of Washington, Author of Grandmothering While Black
Dr. Pittman is an Associate Professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the Joff Hanauer Honors Professor in Western Civilization and has an appointment in the Department of Sociology. Dr. Pittman’s book Grandmothering While Black: A Twenty-First Century Story of Love, Coercion and Survival explores the complex lives of Black grandmothers raising their grandchildren in skipped-generation households.
Ilana
Landsberg-Lewis
Global Leader for Women and
Grandmothers, Founder, Grandmothers
to Grandmothers
Ilana is a labour and human rights lawyer, and a passionate advocate for the rights of women and girls. She is the host of the Podcast: Wisdom at Work: Older Women, Elderwomen and Grandmothers on the Move (formerly: Grandmothers on the Move). Ilana spent ten years at the United Nations, eight of them with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), where she worked as the Agency’s inaugural CEDAW Advisor, contributed to the founding of the Trust Fund on Ending Violence against Women, and co-founded UNGLOBE (a group advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ U.N. employees), becoming its first President. In 2003, Ilana co-founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation, to work with mutuality and solidarity with African community-based organizations working to turn the tide of AIDS at the epicenter of the response to the pandemic. Under Ilana’s leadership as its E.D from 2003-2019, the Foundation moved from her kitchen table to become a $10 million a year fund, supporting over 1800 initiatives with over 300 organizations in the 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa hardest hit by HIV and AIDS. Among her innovations was the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, which launched a vibrant worldwide network of activist older women, working to support African grandmothers, the children in their care, and their communities. Ilana has been deeply honoured and grateful to learn from indomitable grandmothers and older women activists the world over.
Brian H.
Williams, MD
Trauma Surgeon, U.S. Air Force Veteran,
Author of The Bodies Keep Coming
Dr. Brian H. Williams is a trauma surgeon, Air Force veteran, and expert in gun violence prevention and healthcare disparities. He trained at Harvard Medical School and Emory University and served as a Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern and the University of Chicago. Dr. Williams played a key role in crafting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022. He is a former candidate for Congress endorsed by Brady PAC and received the inaugural Giffords Gun Safety Champion Award. Dr. Williams lives in East Dallas with his wife and daughter, where he advocates for safe and healthy communities.
Linda Degutis
DrPH, MSN
Lecturer, Yale School of Public Health,
Former Director, NCIPC, CDC
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 and Board Chair 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 chairs the Advisory Board of the College of Science and Health of DePaul University. She is also on the Advisory Board for the Systems for Action Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and currently chairs the board of the Stop Abuse Campaign. She serves on the editorial board of Injury Epidemiology, and is a member of the international advisory board of the journal Public Health. In addition, she is an advisor to the MENA program, which is based in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale. Dr. Degutis is former Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC. In her previous role at Yale, she was Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health, Research Director for Emergency Medicine, and Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing and 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 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, received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Yale School of Public Health, and is 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.
Margaret
Heldring, PhD
CEO, Grandmothers for Gun Responsibility, Psychologist, Former U.S. Senate Staff
Margaret Heldring PhD, is the Principal Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grandmothers for Gun Responsibility, Margaret was the Founder and served as Chair of Grandmothers Against Gun Violence for 10 years. A retired clinical psychologist, she served as clinical faculty in the UW Department of Family Medicine, as health care legislative assistant to former U.S. Senators Bill Bradley and Paul Wellstone, as a senior policy advisor on Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign, and as the founder and Executive Director of the national nonprofit, America’s HealthTogether. She delights in being a thriving grandmother.
Thursday, October 15, 2026 – 4pm PT | 7pm ET