Ted Alcorn

Ted Alcorn is a journalist and educator with expertise in gun violence prevention policies and programs. He contributes reporting to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other national publications, and is a lecturer at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Previously he was the founding research director of Everytown For Gun Safety, and he served as a policy analyst in the Office of the Mayor of New York City. He earned graduate degrees as a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and their School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and lived in Beijing, China as a Henry Luce scholar.

A Native American family is seen looking out at the sunset wearing masks.
Poverty

Navigating Health Disparities in Navajo Nation

Jennie Wei on challenges and lessons learned in addressing disparities and cultivating community resilience

A child is seen at a community vaccination center, ahead of an expected border reopening with China, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Hong Kong, January 4, 2023.
Governance

Vaccine Confidence After COVID-19

An interview with Ali Mokdad on how the pandemic affected trust in vaccines

U.S. Global Aids Coordinator and Special Representative for Health Diplomacy Ambassador John Nkengasong delivers remarks at the launch of the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the State Department in Washington, U.S., August 1, 2023.
Governance

Inside the New Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy

An interview with Ambassador-at-Large John Nkengasong

Israeli soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda Haredi infantry battalion stand at attention during their swearing-in ceremony in Jerusalem May 26, 2013,
Governance

How a Heavily Armed Country Cut Gun Suicide

Inside Israel’s suicide prevention programs

A boy tries out a 12 gauge Smith and Wesson shotgun as people attend the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention, in Houston, Texas, on May 28, 2022.
Governance

Gun Violence in the United States

Jonathan Lowy, founder of Global Action on Gun Violence, discusses U.S. gun companies’ role in creating violence

A life-size cutot of Professor Aurejus Veryga is used to block the path to buying alcohol in a supermarket during hours when alcohol sales are prohibited, in Lithuania, on January 7, 2019..​
Food

Reducing Alcohol-Related Deaths in Lithuania

How the country is cutting down on deaths related to excess drinking

Bar Manager Nicolas de Soto mixes a Calvados-based cocktail at ECC in Chinatown, London December 3, 2010.
Governance

Alcohol: A Public Health Blind Spot

Richard Yoast on alcohol consumption and how philanthropies could help curb excess drinking   

A woman pours alcohol from the bottle into her mouth at the Far Hills Race Day at Moorland Farms in Far Hills, New Jersey, on October 17, 2015.
Food

Alcohol in Excess

How the World Health Organization plans to curb excess drinking across countries

Mayor Chilando Chitangala wears a light blue tweed blazer and sitesin a black desk chair in her office
Urbanization

Road Safety in Lusaka

Mayor Chilando Chitangala on road safety, public health, and her political ambitions

Dr. Mary Bassett with medical students, in the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe, in 1989.
Gender

Harlem to Harare

by Ted Alcorn

Dr. Mary Bassett on how her upbringing and decades in Africa influenced her thinking about health in the United States

helene gayle with children in kenya
Governance

Choosing to Make a Change

Dr. Helene Gayle on her trailblazing career and the questions she still ponders

Mayor of Belo Horizonte, Gabriel Azevedo, sporting a grey t-shirt, rides a bike in front of tall trees at Praça da Liberdade, one of the most important touristic sites of Belo Horizonte, Brazil in July 2020.
Governance

In Brazil, a City Councilor from Belo Horizonte Has Big Plans

Gabriel Azevedo quotes de Tocqueville, owns a jazz bar, and rides a bike—he's the modern leader his hometown needs