Healing Through Societal Transformation:
From Cultural Betrayal Trauma To Institutional Courage & Dreamstorming
By: Jennifer M. Gómez
Jennifer M. Gómez, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health at Boston University. Additionally, she serves on the Boards of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD), Center for Institutional Courage, and End Rape On Campus. She is a co-editor of the upcoming special issue of Journal of Trauma & Dissociation on intersectionality and dissociation. Dr. Gómez’ research centers around cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT), which she created as a Black feminist theoretical framework for examining the impact of violence within the context of inequality on Black and other marginalized populations. Her research has been published in over 100 peer-reviewed journals, books, newsletters, regional and national media outlets, and the Open Science Framework. Her work has been funded by the Ford Foundation Fellowships Program, administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine (NASEM), the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR)—National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University. Her transdisciplinary book, “The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women & Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing from Sexual Abuse”, published by the American Psychological Association, won the 2024 ISSTD Frank W Putnam Outstanding Book Award. In “The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women & Girls”, Dr. Gómez centers Black women and girls through incorporating basic research on racism, intersectional oppression, and cultural betrayal trauma theory, as well as application in the form of culturally competent trauma therapy, radical healing in the Black community, and institutional courage to promote societal transformation. https://jmgomez.org
The Future of Violence Prevention: Doing the Work in Challenging Times
By: Thomas R. Simon
I am a public health leader and violence prevention strategist with more than 25 years of experience advancing solutions to some of our most urgent challenges — including firearm injury, youth violence, suicide, and child abuse.
Throughout my career at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, I helped build and scale-up national life-saving data systems (NVDRS, NISVS), directed major federal investments in research to understand what works, and helped communities turn evidence into action. I’ve worked across federal agencies, hospitals, foundations, and frontline organizations to shape policy, guide investment, and amplify the science behind violence prevention.
What drives me is simple: the belief that violence is preventable — and that public health has a critical role to play in stopping it before it starts. Whether developing CDC’s Vital Signs reports, helping launch the first national injury mortality dashboard, mentoring emerging leaders, or shaping prevention resources, I’ve sought to make science relevant, actionable, and equity focused.
Using Music and Community to Disrupt Systems, Cycles and Experiences of Oppression – in Philadelphia and Beyond
By: Christopher Thornton
Christopher Thornton (they/them) is a youth educator, culture worker and musician whose work focuses on the intersection of using music as a means to create, build and heal communities, as an avenue for processing and moving through trauma as it presents in the lives of individuals our communities, and finally as a means to strengthen our connections to our ancestors, our diverse and inter-related communities and as a means to build resilience, power and harmony in communities around the world that have been effected by overlapping systems of oppression, exploitation, and divestment. A lifelong music educator, Christopher serves as Co-Executive Director of Philadelphia’s Beyond The Bars, an organization that uses music as a means to disrupt cycles of violence, trauma and disconnection. Christopher is a student, steward and educator within the Afro-Mexican music and community known as Son Jarocho, a community based in the resilience, community healing and creating capacities of African and Indigenous peoples in the Sotavento region of Mexico.