This project represents one of the first large scale assessments of survivors of public mass shootings. There are two overarching goals that underlie the conducting of this research. First, a primary goal is to understand the needs of survivors following mass shootings from their unique perspectives and lived experiences. In doing so, this project seeks to answer the following research questions:

• Are there distinct patterns of support utilization by survivors in the aftermath of a mass shooting?
• How does support utilization differ across the different phases of a given disaster?
• How does support utilization differ based on the way in which the survivor was affected or connected to the shooting?
• Which factors facilitate access to support services? Which are barriers to these services?
• Which types of supports did survivors find to be the most helpful? Which did they find to be the least helpful?
• Was there any variation in support utilization based on whether the perpetrator survived or died in the attack? Was there any variation in availability of services?
• How does support utilization differ, if at all, based on demographic factors of the survivors?

Additionally, while the project will consider the experiences of all survivor participants, it also will explore how other factors, such as the community in which the shooting occurred or the amount of time that has passed since the event, may shape such perceptions. We recognize that each survivor’s experience is unique but also believe there will be important commonalities identified that can provide greater insight into how support can be effectively provided in the immediate, intermediate, and long-term aftermath of the event.

The second goal of the project is to then leverage the results of the survey to provide recommendations for vested stakeholders (e.g., governments, agencies, support providers) about how best to provide such support. The perspectives of survivors can provide unique insight that may help communities and policymakers respond to these tragedies in a more focused and nuanced manner, leveraging limited resources more effectively toward the services and opportunities found to be most helpful by survivors.

To achieve these goals and answer the above questions, this project seeks to survey survivors of public mass shootings from across the United States. Participants will be asked to complete an anonymous survey about their tragedy and the time that has passed since its occurrence. Specific attention is given to resource utilization, including publicly and privately available services, coping mechanisms, and formal and informal proceedings, as well as perspectives about different types of supports. Consideration also will be given to posttraumatic growth, the impact of the event, and social acknowledgement.

All surveys were administered online through the SurveyMonkey platform and the data will be collected anonymously (no identifying information will be asked). As data collection has completed, the information collected is now being analyzed as both an aggregate group of mass shooting survivors and disaggregated based on community and type of impact, pending the number of respondents in each category, to identify more nuanced and unique experiences.

Findings from this survey will be disseminated in several key ways to reach the broad audience of relevant stakeholders, including practitioners (e.g., victim advocates, mental health professionals, and social workers), policymakers, academics, and even the survivors themselves. The project’s multifaceted dissemination strategy includes the following planned outputs:

• Research- and policy-focused briefs to highlight key findings and pair them with actionable recommendations
• Scholarly articles and research notes
• Webinars for stakeholders and survivors
• Fact sheets and infographics

To ensure the broadest and most widespread dissemination of the findings as possible, the project staff also will leverage existing resources, including the project website and social media. The Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium and the Rockefeller Institute of Government also will help to promote the findings through social media, email campaigns, and other outlets.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR / PROJECT DIRECTOR

Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut is the Executive Director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. She is a national expert on mass shootings, a topic which she has researched for more than 15 years. Since 2017, Dr. Schildkraut has conducted research with mass shooting survivors to better understand their experiences and resource needs in the aftermath of the tragedy. The initial phases of the project involved qualitative interviews with more than 40 survivors and resiliency center directors from various communities impacted by mass shootings in the United States. This work yielded a book chapter and journal article to date with additional publications planned. Dr. Schildkraut also provided expert testimony based on this research to Canada’s Mass Casualty Commission, tasked with investigating the April 2020 incident in Nova Scotia, as well as a commissioned report about how best to support survivors and communities in the aftermath of mass shootings. She received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University and worked as an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego prior to joining Rockefeller full-time.

PROJECT CONSULTANT

Dr. Rebecca Cowan is a Ph.D.-level Licensed Professional Counselor with over 15 years of experience within the mental health field. She owns a mental health practice in Virginia and has expertise in treating survivors of crisis and trauma using a trauma-informed integrative approach. Through her work as a Disaster Mental Health supervisor with the American Red Cross, Dr. Cowan has responded to several mass shootings, including the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, NV, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. Dr. Cowan also is a core faculty member in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Walden University and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at Old Dominion University. She has authored several peer-reviewed articles on mass shootings and served as a gubernatorial appointee on the Commission to Investigate the May 31, 2019, Virginia Beach Mass Shooting. She received her Ph.D. from Old Dominion University and is currently pursuing an additional Master of Science degree in Forensic Psychology/Terrorism.

This research also is supported by a multidisciplinary advisory board, who provide input on the survey design, results, and ultimate policy recommendations. The advisory board members reflect a range of disciplines in academia as well as practitioners who have direct experience working with survivors. Further, to ensure the experiences of those affected by mass shootings are accurately captured, two survivors sit on the advisory board.

Current advisory board membership includes the following individuals:

• Dr. Jillian Turanovic, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
  Dr. Turanovic has an active research agenda rooted firmly in identifying the sources and consequences of serious violence and victimization. She is the author of Confronting School Violence: A Synthesis of Six Decades of Research (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Thinking About Victimization: Context and Consequences (Routledge, 2019), as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles that have been published in journals such as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Research on Adolescence, and Journal of School Violence. Dr. Turanovic recently led and completed a data collection effort to identify deadly mass shootings in the U.S. dating back to 1980, funded by the National Institute of Justice. She has extensive experience with victim services and has helped to developed programming to address the needs of survivors of complex homicide in Palm Beach County, Florida. In addition to her research on violence and victimization, Dr. Turanovic has testified to the Florida State Senate on issues of mass violence and has provided national webinars in collaboration with the National Institute of Justice and the Center for Victim Research on topics of school violence and mass shootings.

• Dr. Anthony Mancini, Associate Professor of Psychology, Pace University
  Dr. Mancini is a clinical psychologist who studies loss, trauma, and stressful life events. He has published extensively in the field of psychological resilience, individual differences in responses to stress, and the role of social processes in adaptation. His work has examined events as varied as the Virginia Tech campus shootings, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, military deployment, traumatic injury, bereavement, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He has methodological expertise in longitudinal trajectory methods, network analysis, meta-analysis, and qualitative research approaches. He currently serves as the Chief Editor of Anxiety, Stress & Coping, a Taylor & Francis journal. He has published over 60 journal articles and book chapters, and his work has also been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Desert News, the Mercury News, and other outlets.

• Krista R. Flanagan, Co-Director of the Crime Victim Research and Policy Institute at Florida State University
  Krista R. Flannigan, J.D. is an attorney, educator, and victim advocate experienced in emergency response and management, media relations, community collaboration and program development. She responds to incidents of mass violence and terrorism around the country assisting in the immediate aftermath as well as supporting communities in establishing long-term services for those impacted by the incidents. In addition, Krista was part of a team that created a national resource E-toolkit for a coordinated victim service response to incidents of mass violence and terrorism. She also works with communities and universities to develop victim response plans to incidents of mass violence and terrorism. Krista also has vast experience providing training to attorneys, law enforcement, victim advocates, mental health professionals and educators regarding a variety of issues, including trauma informed care and intervention with victims of mass violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault. She has trained nationally on coordinated community response for victims of mass tragedy, high-profile trials as well as on the impact of mass tragedy on victims and communities. 

• Amanda Crawford, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Connecticut
  Amanda Crawford’s current research focuses on misinformation surrounding mass shootings and other high-profile crimes. An investigative reporter and literary journalist, Crawford is writing a nonfiction trade book that follows the fight for truth in the decade following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Related articles have been published by Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Conversation, Salon, Talking Points Memo, The Miami Herald, Boston Globe Magazine, and other outlets. This research, which includes examining the media’s role and the impact on survivors, builds off Crawford’s background as a reporter who covered several mass shootings and wrote extensively about gun policy. Crawford previously worked for Bloomberg News, The Arizona Republic, and the Baltimore Sun, and she has been widely published in a variety of other major media outlets including Businessweek, People, and National Geographic.

• Dr. John Nicoletti, Board-Certified Specialist in Police and Public Safety Psychology, Nicoletti-Flater Associates
  Dr. Nicoletti has more than 40 years’ experience providing services to state, local, and national law enforcement agencies and government entities. In addition to Police Psychology, he specializes in identifying, assessing and defusing attack related behaviors, workplace violence prevention, and trauma recovery.  Dr. Nicoletti works with numerous agencies on developing protocols and threat management for insider threats of violence. He has written three books and numerous articles in the areas of violence and has provided on-site assistance in the trauma recovery for various mass casualty events, including Columbine High School (1999), Platte Canyon High School (2006), Virginia Tech (2007), Aurora (2012), and Arapahoe High School (2013). Dr. Nicoletti is the recipient of a grant from the Department of Homeland Security focused on preventing targeted violence and radicalization (2021) and services as an invited participant on a committee with the International Association of Chiefs of Police focused on responding to mass violence incidents.

• George Brauchler, District Attorney (Ret.) for Colorado’s 18th Judicial District
  Mr. Brauchler previously served as the district attorney for the counties of Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln, serving 1.1 million Coloradans. During his more than 27 years as a litigator, he took nearly 200 trials to verdict in state, federal, and military courts. Among the cases he prosecuted were the Columbine High School mass shooting, and the trials of the perpetrator of the 2012 mass shooting at an Aurora movie (Batman) theater and the 2019 shooting at STEM School in Highlands Ranch, a role which required him to regularly work with victims’ families, survivors, and community members. Brauchler further has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law, Colorado Law, and the JAG schools for both the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. Brauchler continues to speak nationwide about his experience prosecuting mass shooters.

• Elizabeth Cronin, Director of the Office for Victim Services, New York State
  Ms. Cronin was appointed to the directorship in 2013 by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. In addition, Ms. Cronin was a special victim’s prosecutor and is a published author and frequent public speaker on legal and administrative topics, including prosecuting domestic violence cases, immigration law, and evidence, among others.

• Sherrie Lawson, Survivor of the 2013 shooting at Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC
  Through her healing journey following the September 16, 2013 shooting, Ms. Lawson became passionate about supporting others that also suffer from the “invisible wounds’ of trauma. She joined The Rebels Project (TRP) as a member in 2014 and joined the TRP leadership team in 2016. After spending 15 years in Washington, DC and returning home to her native NC for two years, she relocated to Denver, Colorado to become even more involved in the TRP mission of providing support for survivors of mass tragedy. Ms. Lawson currently volunteers as Director of Operations for TRP. In addition to her work with TRP, she is a manager at a Denver based nonprofit and lectures at the University of Colorado-Denver.

• Shawn Aitken, Responding SWAT Officer at the 2019 shooting in Virginia Beach, VA
  At the time of the mass shooting, Mr. Aitken had 25 years of service as a police officer and was a SWAT Team member for 13 years. He previously had no interest in mental health or understanding of wellness-related concepts.  The shooting’s impact drastically changed his view on the need for mental health awareness and practices for himself and his peers. His journey started with a hard look inward and how the shooting had a damaging impact on his own relationships. As a first responder, he also has a vested interest in the well-being of victims of mass shooting and targeted violence.

• Michael Megaro, Patrol Sergeant for the City of Virginia Beach, VA
  Sgt. Megaro is a decorated veteran police officer for the City of Virginia Beach. With 23+ years experience as a law enforcement officer, he has worked in several aspects including CIT Instructor/Faculty, Patrol, SWAT, Traffic, Fugitive Detective, and currently assigned as a Patrol Sergeant. Additionally, he served as a member of the United States Army (SOCOM) and is a trained paramedic. After responding to the 2019 shooting at the City’s municipal complex, Sgt. Megaro began experiencing posttraumatic stress, ultimately seeking help to deal with the experience of the tragedy. He now advocates for other first responders who respond to similar tragedies.