Joseph Sakran

Joseph V. Sakran
Joseph V. Sakran in 2024
Born (1977-08-03) August 3, 1977
Falls Church, Virginia
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationGeorge Mason University (BS)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (MPH)
Harvard University (MPA)
Ben-Gurion University (MD)
Occupation(s)Trauma surgeon, gun violence prevention advocate
Medical career
FieldSurgery, public health, gun violence prevention, healthcare policy
WebsiteOfficial profile

Joseph V. Sakran (born August 3, 1977, Falls Church, Virginia) is an American trauma surgeon, public health researcher, health policy advocate, and activist.[1][2] He is currently an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University, Executive Vice Chair of Surgery, and Director of Clinical Operations for Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine.[3]

Sakran was shot in the throat by a stray bullet at the age of 17, which led him to advocate for gun violence prevention.[4]

Early life, education, and career

Sakran was born in Falls Church, Virginia to immigrant parents.[5] He attended high school in Burke, Virginia. As a high school senior, at a local playground after attending a football game at Lake Braddock Secondary School, he was struck in the neck from a stray bullet fired into a crowd. With his windpipe ruptured and carotid artery severed, he was saved by trauma surgeon Dr. Robert Ahmed and vascular surgeon Dr. Dipankar Mukherjee at Inova Fairfax Hospital.[5] He attended George Mason University and gained experience as a medic and firefighter at the City of Fairfax Fire & Rescue Department.[6]

Sakran earned an undergraduate degree in biology and minor in chemistry from George Mason University in 1999. He graduated with a Doctor of Medicine from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Medical School for International Health in 2005 and earned a Master of Public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2003. He also holds a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.[7][8][9] He completed his general surgery residency training at Inova Fairfax Hospital and then fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery.[10][9]

Sakran was inducted to the National Academy of Medicine in 2023.[11]

Sakran also serves as Board Chair for Brady and is its Chief Medical Officer. In addition, he is the Chair of This Is Our Lane Advisory Council.[12]

Starting from 2023, Sakran has partnered with colleagues to lead efforts in scaling the implementation of opportunistic salpingectomy (OS), which involves the removal of fallopian tubes during planned abdominal surgeries to prevent ovarian cancer.[13][14][15][16]

In 2024, he received the 2024 President Frontier Award from Johns Hopkins University.[17]

Gun violence prevention advocacy

In 2016, Sakran's activism first achieved national recognition when he founded Doctors for Hillary, supporting the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, who had made gun violence prevention a central tenet of her campaign. He was recognized by Secretary Clinton for his work.[18]

His research in public health and specifically firearm injury prevention has been recognized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Academy Health. A recent study published in Health Affairs, Emergency Department Visits for Firearm-Related Injuries in the United States, 2006-14 was given an honorable mention as one of the 2017 Outstanding Article of the Year Award by Health Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).[19]

Sakran has also written numerous opinion pieces for The Atlantic and CNN.[20][21][22][23][24] In February 2019, Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), invited Sakran as his guest to the State of the Union, recognizing his support for gun control as a trauma surgeon.[25] On February 6, 2019, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee invited Sakran to testify at a hearing.[26]

In 2019, Sakran was recognized as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by George Mason University.[27] In the same year, he was also selected for the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, where his project focused on storage of firearms.[28] In the same year, Sakran was selected as one of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows by the National Academy of Medicine. He has been working on legislative and regulatory issues since the 2010s.[29][30]

Media

  • 2015: Featured by Harvard Kennedy School, "Surgeon Joseph Sakran MC/MPA 2015 advocates for gun reform"[2]
  • 2018: Featured in CNN, "Victim of gun violence returns to the E.R., this time as the surgeon"[31]
  • 2018: Featured in MSNBC, "Dr. Joseph Sakran On Gun Violence: We Are Facing A Public Health Crisis"[32]
  • 2018: Featured in CNN Town Hall with Chris Cuomo, "Armas de fuego: ¿Enfrenta Estados Unidos una crisis de salud pública?"[33]
  • 2018: NPR interview, "A Trauma Surgeon Who Survived Gun Violence Is Taking On The NRA"[34]
  • 2018: "CNN Interview Dr. Joseph Sakran; Gun violence victim responses to NRA"[35]
  • 2019: House Judiciary Testimony[36]
  • 2019: Story in the Public Square[37]
  • 2019: Featured in The Atlantic, "Why Doctors Are Taking on the NRA"[38]
  • 2020: Featured in multiple news articles when he falsely claimed that someone left a threatening image on his vehicle. [39][40]
  • 2024: Featured in The Guardian: "He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore"[1]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b "He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore". the Guardian. June 20, 2024. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Surgeon Joseph Sakran MC/MPA 2015 advocates for gun reform". Harvard Kennedy School. March 27, 2025. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  3. ^ "Joseph Sakran". Johns Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  4. ^ Flynn, Meagan (November 14, 2018). "Shot in the neck at 17, this is the trauma surgeon now leading doctors against gun violence and the NRA". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  5. ^ a b Court, Emma (October 5, 2017). "This trauma surgeon, who was shot as a teenager, wants you to know gun violence happens every day". MarketWatch. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  6. ^ Hobbs, Bonnie (October 15, 2018). "You Must Respect and Honor Human Life". Fairfax Connection. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  7. ^ Pelisek, Christine (September 29, 2017). "Trauma Surgeon Shot in Throat at 17 Now Saves Other Victims' Lives — and Fights Against Gun Violence". People Magazine. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  8. ^ "MSIH Alum, Dr. Joseph Sakran, speaks on the epidemic of Gun Violence in America". msih.bgu.ac.il. November 10, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  9. ^ a b Gross, Terry (November 28, 2018). "A Trauma Surgeon Who Survived Gun Violence Is Taking On The NRA". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  10. ^ Flynn, Meagan (November 14, 2018). "Shot in the neck at 17, this is the trauma surgeon now leading doctors against gun violence and the NRA". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 14, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  11. ^ "National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members". National Academy of Medicine. October 9, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  12. ^ "President's Frontier Award: 2024 Recipient and Finalists". VPR at JHU. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  13. ^ Stone R, Sakran JV, Long Roche K (June 2023). "Salpingectomy in Ovarian Cancer Prevention". JAMA. 329 (23): 2015–2016. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.6979. PMID 37261821.
  14. ^ Sakran, Joseph V.; Roche, Kara Long; Stone, Rebecca (May 21, 2023). "Having Their Fallopian Tubes Removed Will Spare a Large Number of Women from Ovarian Cancer". Scientific American.
  15. ^ Chidambaram, Swathikan; Stone, Rebecca; Roche, Kara Long; Sakran, Joseph V (April 11, 2025). "A Role for General Surgery in Saving Lives from Ovarian Cancer". Journal of the American College of Surgeons. doi:10.1097/XCS.0000000000001409. ISSN 1072-7515.
  16. ^ MacArthur, Emily; Long Roche, Kara; Sakran, Joseph; Patel, Sunil H.; Najjar, Peter; Lu, Karen H.; Gornet, Megan; Frost, Anja S.; Walrath, Meghan; Bauer, Tom; Oh, Gyyoung; Stone, Rebecca (2024). "Salpingectomy for ovarian cancer prevention: Video education for the surgeon". Gynecologic Oncology Reports. 53: 101368. doi:10.1016/j.gore.2024.101368. PMC 10997886. PMID 38584804.
  17. ^ "President's Frontier Award: 2024 Recipient and Finalists". VPR at JHU. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  18. ^ "Hillary Clinton". Twitter. January 3, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  19. ^ "Archive of Recipients". HCUP Outstanding Article of the Year Awards. Archived from the original on August 2, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  20. ^ Sakran, Joseph; Sathya, Chethan (August 29, 2017). "Covid-19 is removing crucial voices from patients' bedsides". CNN. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  21. ^ Volsky, Igor; Sakran, Joseph (November 12, 2018). "How to end the scourge of gun violence? Open dialogue". CNN. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  22. ^ Sakran, Joseph (March 18, 2019). "Dear NRA, of course doctors are part of the solution". CNN. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  23. ^ Volsky, Igor; Sakran, Joseph (April 8, 2020). "Unlike US, New Zealand isn't just offering thoughts and prayers". CNN. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  24. ^ Volsky, Igor; Sakran, Joseph (March 19, 2020). "Buying a gun isn't the answer to coronavirus". CNN. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  25. ^ "Chairman Thompson to Bring Gun Violence Survivor and Prevention Advocate to State of the Union". US House of Representatives (Mike Thompson). February 4, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  26. ^ "Preventing Gun Violence: A Call to Action". House Judiciary. February 6, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  27. ^ "2019 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Dr. Joseph V. Sakran". GMU College of Science. June 4, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  28. ^ "2019 Class of Presidential Leadership Scholars Announced". Presidential Leadership Scholars. January 31, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  29. ^ "Joseph Sakran named a Robert Wood Foundation Health Policy Fellow". The Johns Hopkins University. August 29, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  30. ^ "Joseph Sakran". Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  31. ^ Victim of gun violence returns to the E.R., this time as the surgeon
  32. ^ Dr. Joseph Sakran On Gun Violence: We Are Facing A Public Health Crisis
  33. ^ Armas de fuego: ¿Enfrenta Estados Unidos una crisis de salud pública?
  34. ^ Gross, Terry (November 28, 2018). "A Trauma Surgeon Who Survived Gun Violence Is Taking On The NRA". NPR. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  35. ^ CNN Interview Dr. Joseph Sakran; Gun violence victim responses to NRA
  36. ^ House Judiciary Testimony
  37. ^ September 23, 2019: Joseph Sakran
  38. ^ Why Doctors Are Taking on the NRA
  39. ^ Zimmerman, Dan (January 27, 2020). "Busted? Dr. Joseph Sakran Deletes Tweets Claiming He Was Threatened Over His Gun Control Advocacy". The Truth About Guns. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
  40. ^ Zimmerman, Dan (January 26, 2020). "Is a Prominent Anti-Gun Physician Lying About Receiving a Death Threat From Gun Owners?". The Truth About Guns. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
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