Gun culture is written into the American Constitution, and the two grew side-by-side. Every day, gun violence results in over 1 million surviving victims across the country. Their lives are blighted by mental illness, hospitalizations, addiction and other diseases, treating the bullet wound, but not curing the underlying problem. Despite everything that emergency rooms can do, they return to neglect and poverty, drowning in a culture of violence.

Dr. Kalesan is a clinical epidemiologist and data scientist, with three interdisciplinary research pillars, within the umbrella of eliminating racial disparities and discrimination and promoting equity and social justice: 1) trauma and violence (firearm injury epidemiology), 2) cardiometabolic diseases 3) psychiatric and mental health conditions. She uses novel statistical methodology, supervised and unsupervised machine learning and emerging m-health technologies. Her most recent study in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that the average profile of an American using a gun for suicide is a married, white male over the age of 50 who is experiencing deteriorating health.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx