Chicago police superintendent to speak at UIC about gun violence

The 13th annual Bridging the Gap symposium at the University of Illinois at Chicago features speakers on violence, precision medicine, and UIC’s commitment to minority education in the health sciences. The public symposium brings together clinicians, health care leaders and researchers to discuss health equality for minority and underserved populations.

“This symposium has always focused on how we, as health care providers, can help move forward health equity for all,” says Dr. Enrico Benedetti, the Warren H. Cole Chair in Surgery, at the UIC College of Medicine and an organizer of the symposium.

“The violence that has been on the rise in Chicago in the past year, as we all know, overwhelmingly affects African American males on the South and West sides,” Benedetti said. “This violence disparity needs to be addressed, at least in part, from a health standpoint. We are happy to welcome Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mark Payne, executive director of CeaseFire, a violence prevention program that originated at the UIC School of Public Health, to talk about how we can work together to reduce gun violence in our city.”

WHEN:

Oct. 29
7:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m.

WHERE:

UIC Student Center West
828 S. Wolcott Ave.

Other speakers include:

• Anthony Guglielmi, CPD director of communications & news affairs
• Deon Thomas, former professional basketball player and Big Ten analyst
• Dr. Gary Merlotti, chairman of surgery at Sinai Health System
• Dr. Robert Winn, associate vice chancellor for community-based practice at UI Health and a co-principal investigator on the Illinois Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program
• Tyrone Forman, UIC vice provost for diversity

The full list of speakers and their topics and registration for this free event are online.