Our Team

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Fatimah Loren Dreier, MA, MBA

Executive Director, Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education

Executive Director, the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI)

Vice President, Health Resources in Action (HRiA)

Fatimah Loren Dreier (she/her) is a nationally recognized expert in health equity, preventative public health strategies to address gun violence, and trauma-informed care delivery. Fatimah serves as Vice President of HRiA, a Boston-based public health institute. In addition, she serves as the inaugural Executive Director of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education and Executive Director of the HAVI. The HAVI is a healthcare organization that has developed and scaled a model of care, called hospital-based violence intervention programs, to treat violently injured patients. The HAVI has a presence in 85 markets in the United States.

Fatimah previously served as Deputy Executive Director of Equal Justice USA (EJUSA), a national criminal justice reform organization where she led an award-winning program on community trauma. Fatimah has received numerous honors and distinctions, including the 2018 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders Fellowship and the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale School of Management.

Fatimah’s work and thought leadership has appeared in numerous media outlets including CNN, theWashington Post, NPR, TIME, the New York Times, Health Affairs, Politico, AP, and more. Her work has also appeared in Nature, the Journal of Adolescent Health, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the American Journal of Public Health and more. She is a psychotherapist by training and holds an MBA from Yale School of Management.

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Angelina Ruffin, PhD

Managing Director, Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education

Angelina Ruffin (she/her) has nearly 20 years of experience researching and evaluating best practices in violence prevention within government and community-based organizations. In June 2023, she assumed the role of Managing Director of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education. Prior to joining the Center, Angelina was appointed Deputy Managing Director and Director of Performance Management for the City of Philadelphia by Mayor Jim Kenney in 2016. She collaborated with city leaders on several criminal justice and public safety initiatives, including work on the development of the Roadmap to a Safer Communities as well as the strategy for reforming the Philadelphia Prison System's Transgender Inmate Housing Policy. Angelina has previously served as the Director of Performance Management at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and policy advisor to three Health Secretaries at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. In addition, she has led multiple program evaluations for government and social service agencies and has championed the use of data to improve public policies and business practices.

Angelina earned her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Pennsylvania, during which she spent several years assessing violence prevention programs' effectiveness from a public health perspective. Angelina's research has garnered grant support from the Fahs-Beck for Research and Experimentation at the New York Community Trust and the Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center on Violence & Abuse. She has received several community awards, most notably being recognized by the NAACP as one of one hundred most influential women in Philadelphia.

Angelina attended Cornell University and graduated with a BS in Policy Analysis and Management. She was a Dean's Healthcare Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, earning her master's degree in Health Care Policy and Management, and graduated with distinction. Angelina resides in Philadelphia with her three children.

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Tracy L. Ward, LCSW

Program Lead, Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education

Tracy Ward, LCSW (she/her) serves as the National Program Lead for the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education. A social worker at heart, Tracy has worked in various capacities within the social work, juvenile justice, non-profit and health care fields for over 30 years including probation departments, child protective services and mental health programs. Her commitment to service focused on vulnerable children and families has always guided her career path. In January 2017, Tracy joined Kaiser Permanente as a Community Health Manager for the Northern California region. In this role, she oversaw community grants and nurtured vital community relationships, with a strong focus on mental health, and community and family safety. Tracy's experience and dedication led to her most recent role as the National Program Lead, supporting the development of the national strategy for the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education. Tracy has a bachelor's degree in sociology, a master's degree in social work, and licensure as a clinical social worker.