Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD, MSc & Rowena Patrick - Preventing Youth Gun Violence

Agree to Agree (https://agreetoagree.org/) is an Ad Council ( https://www.adcouncil.org/ ) initiative focused on finding common ground to reduce the impact of gun violence on children and teens across all communities in the U.S. This new campaign launched in early 2025 and is focused on reaching distinct audiences, including parents and those with children in their lives who have a vested interest in protecting our youth and health care professionals who witness the impact of gun violence firsthand.

Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD, MSc, is a pediatric trauma surgeon and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded firearm injury prevention researcher (https://www.northwell.edu/chethan-sathya-md). He serves as director of Northwell Health's Center for Gun Violence Prevention and oversees the health system's expansive approach to firearm injury prevention.

The largest health system in New York, Northwell has taken a public health approach to gun violence prevention, focusing on key areas such as research, medical education, clinical screening, advocacy and community engagement.

Under Dr. Sathya's leadership, the center has leveraged the health system's diverse patient population and wide reach to implement ground breaking preventative strategies and perform high-level research.

Dr. Sathya was recently awarded $1.4 million from the NIH to study gun violence prevention and implement a first-of-its-kind protocol to universally screen among those at risk of firearm injury. The grant is part of the health system's 'We Ask Everyone: Firearm Safety is a Health Issue' research study, which aims to shift the paradigm to view gun violence as a public health issue and approach firearm injury risk similarly to other health risk factors that are part of routine care, like smoking, substance use and motor vehicle accidents.

Furthermore, Dr. Sathya spearheaded the formation of the National Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Hospitals and Health Systems.

As a surgeon- journalist with firsthand experience pulling bullets out of children - many of whom die. Dr. Sathya has a unique perspective and deep rooted passion in telling the stories of children affected by gun violence.

Dr. Sathya has presented on gun violence prevention in various forums and has bylines at major media outlets such as CNN, Scientific American, The Washington Post and TIME. He has been an invited keynote speaker at a number of events, including the American Hospital Association Leadership Summit on Violence Prevention and the Healthcare Association of New York State symposium on best practices in gun violence prevention.

Dr. Sathya is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Action Collaborative for preventing firearm-related violence. He's also a consultant to the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.

Ms. Rowena Patrick is a Senior Vice President and group campaign director at the Ad Council ( https://www.adcouncil.org/rowena-patrick ), a non-profit organization, that brings together the most creative minds in advertising, media and tech to address the most worthy causes.

Since 1942, Ad Council icons and slogans have woven into the very fabric of American culture. From their earliest efforts including “Loose Lips Sink Ships,” Smokey Bear’s “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” and “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” to the recent groundbreaking Love Has No Labels, #EndFamilyFire and #SheCanSTEM, the Ad Council’s social good campaigns shift mindsets and spur movements. The Ad Council settles for nothing less than a lasting impact on American life.

For the past two decades Ms. Patrick has collaborated with some of the best creative and marketing minds in the country to tackle critical issues like gun violence, the overdose crisis and empowering girls in STEM. Her current roster of clients includes AARP, Brady, and a consortium of leading tech companies: Google, Verizon, IBM, and Bloomberg.

Prior to that, Ms. Patrick worked at various companies with roles such as Account Supervisor / Account Executive at FCB, Business Development Manager at Initiative, and Account Executive / Assistant Account Executive at Ogilvy & Mather. She also worked as a Marketing Consultant at The Nova Collective and as a Teaching Assistant at Columbia University.

Ms. Patrick holds a MS in Strategic Communications from Columbia University and a BS in Marketing & Information Systems from New York University.

#ChethanSathya #RowenaPatrick #AdCouncil #NorthwellHealth #AgreeToAgree #ViolencePrevention #FirearmInjuries #GunViolence #FirearmSafety #PublicServiceAdvertisement #PublicHealth #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research