PROGRESS Co-Director Dr. Richardson is the Executive Producer and Director of the award winning digital storytelling project "Life After the Gunshot," which explores the social context of gun violence, trauma and the intersection of the healthcare and criminal legal systems among ten young Black men survivors of gun violence in Washington, DC.

Featuring PROGRESS Co-Director Jo Richardson, this video demonstrates the power of peer support as Black men in Baltimore City help each other heal from the trauma of gun violence.

The second installment of the PROGRESS Distinguished Speaker Series features Dr. Mudia Uzzi, a Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  His presentation was entitled "Structural Drivers of Firearm Violence: Theory, Evidence, and Transformational Solutions."

In addition to serving as the Co-Director of PROGRESS, Dr. Woodie Kessel is a community pediatrician and child advocate with experience as an educator, investigator, and practitioner in medicine, public health, bioengineering, community-based initiatives, and public policy for more than four decades. Dr. Kessel is currently Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health and the C. Everett Koop Institute Senior Child Health Scholar in Residence and Professor of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College.

In addition to serving as the Co-Director of PROGRESS, Dr. Jo Richardson is the MPower Professor of African-American Studies, Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology. The MPower Professorship supports Dr. Richardson's innovative research on gun violence, trauma, mental health and community violence interventions for Black boys and young Black men. Prior to receiving the MPower Professorship, Dr. Richardson was awarded the prestigious Joel and Kim Feller Endowed Professorship. In 2023, Dr. Richardson was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

On December 20, 2024, the Alliance of Concerned Men (ACM) and the University of Maryland’s PROGRESS team hosted a collaborative dialogue in Washington, DC, focused on enhancing community violence intervention (CVI) efforts.  The event highlighted critical challenges such as resource gaps and data accuracy, while reaffirming the importance of collaboration, training, and tailored solutions to create safer neighborhoods.

The inaugural PROGRESS Distinguished Speaker Series event features UMD scholar-practitioners Professor Rabiatu Barrie and Professor Brooklynn Hitchens. Dr. Barrie presented on "Gendered Racialized Trauma: Masculinity as a Risk Factor for African American Men." Dr. Hitchen's presentation was entitled: "'We Clean it Up': Black Female Homicide Survivorship In Context."

The PROGRESS initiative was formally set in motion on November 8, 2023, with the PROGRESS launch event at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.  PROGRESS Co-Directors Joseph Richardson and Woodie Kessel—along with a distinguished roster of speakers and panelists—shared insights into, and best practices for, reducing firearm-related violence and promoting safe homes and communities in Maryland and across the nation.

PROGRESS addresses a range of topics, including community firearm violence, suicide, domestic violence, safe gun storage, gun trafficking, and the influence of social media on gun violence and conflict.  The initiative collects and analyzes data, offers an interdisciplinary speaker series featuring scholars and legislators, and engages community members to create actionable community-based solutions for gun violence.  Learn more about the urgent public health crisis that inspired PROGRESS's launch.

Homecoming’s Beyond the Field lecture goes off the gridiron and into the classroom to showcase our faculty’s impactful work. PROGRESS Co-Director Joseph Richardson’s work takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the causes and consequences of gun violence. Integrating behavioral and social science, medicine, public health, social work, law, computer science and the digital humanities, his research informs interventions to stem gun violence, particularly among young Black men. 

PROGRESS Co-Director Dr. Joseph Richardson joined the Yale School of Public Health for a panel discussion on "The Use of Arts & Storytelling to Prevent Firearm Injury."  Alongside Dr. Joseph Richardson, this discussion also featured expert panelists Nelba Márquez-Greene and Dr. Chana Sacks.  Moderated by Dean Megan Ranney, the panelists presented their individual experiences working in the field of gun violence prevention.

On September 30th, 2024, PROGRESS Co-Director Dr. Jo Richardson gave a testimony before the Council of the District of Columbia's Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety, chaired by Brooke Pinto. Alongside Daniel Webster from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Dr. Richardson emphasized the importance of the DC Office of Neighborhood Safety & Engagement's oversight of Violence Intervention Grants.

On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, SciLine interviewed PROGRESS Co-Director Dr. Joseph Richardson on the subject of gun violence in U.S. cities.

In this session panel, PROGRESS Co-Director Jo Richardson, along other esteemed panelists, discuss forward-thinking, collaborative approaches to gun violence research that help catalyze meaningful change. This discussion includes key pillars of rigorous, equitable health research, including defining groundbreaking research practices and meaningful community engagement.

Moderator: Fatimah Loren Dreier, Executive Director, Health Alliance for Violence Intervention

On April 9th, 2024, PROGRESS Co-Director Jo Richardson participated in a panel focused on gun violence prevention with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

On April 5th, 2024, PROGRESS Co-Director Jo Richardson testified before the DC City Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety on issued related to gun violence prevention and intervention.