Clinical research spotlight: Lauren Magee, PhD

Firearms are the leading cause of death among children in Indiana and the United States, but for community-based faculty researcher Lauren Magee, PhD, that’s only part of the story. Magee, assistant professor of pediatrics at IU School of Medicine, focuses on nonfatal firearm injuries (NFI), which are twice as prevalent as those that are fatal. Exploring the needs associated with surviving a firearm injury, Magee implements and evaluates interventions that provide necessary behavioral and social support services for firearm injury survivors and their families within clinical and community settings. She is also co-creator of the Indianapolis Nonfatal Shooting Advocacy Program, an initiative that provides outreach and resources to area victims and families affected by NFIs.

“My research with survivors of firearm injuries describes the emotional impact shootings have on their mental health, the stigma they experience when seeking mental health care post injury, and the emotional impact their shooting has on their family members,” said Magee, who worked as a crime analyst for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department before pursuing a PhD. “For example, we know that youth siblings and children of NFI survivors have higher mental health needs in the year following a shooting of a family member compared to the directly injured person.”

Magee has two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and also receives funding from the Arnold Ventures Foundation, Fund for a Safer Future and Riley Children’s Foundation (RCF). Recently named a William T. Grant Scholar, she is using the funding award to evaluate the best method to provide victim advocate services within the local police department to youth victims of gun violence and their families. Her NIH-funded research aims to understand how simply witnessing a shooting and/or knowing a shooting victim impacts a child’s behavioral health and involvement in future violence as either a victim or perpetrator.

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a pediatric health care researcher?
The most rewarding part of my research and what keeps me going every day are the collaborations I’ve built with community partners and the conversations I’ve had with youth about how gun violence impacted their life and hearing their ideas of how to end gun violence. This is tremendously important because we can’t improve the health of young people without their voices and ideas at the table.

How have IU School of Medicine and RCF supported your work?
Funding from Riley Children’s Foundation has provided me with additional resources to conduct pilot studies and further develop community partnerships to engage youth in gun violence prevention efforts. For example, I am working with ReAct Theater and the Asante Art Institute on The Gun Play to explore how the arts can be a tool to prevent gun violence. We also received the Indiana CTSI trailblazer planning award, and my RCF funding is helping support gathering preliminary data for future grant proposals.

What are your plans for future research?
I plan to continue working to understand how to best expand our screening and evidence-based interventions to include children exposed to—but not physically injured by—firearm violence. I also plan to further develop cross-sectional partnerships between health care systems, the justice system and communities to address the trauma of gun violence, which will ultimately prevent future gun violence.