The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting once again strengthened its role as the national leader for journalists covering gun violence during the past year, helping advance conversations around more empathetic, ethical, and impactful news coverage. PCGVR expanded its staff and services, developed new reporting tools and survivor-centered resources, published original research, and deepened partnerships with journalists across the country. This 2025 Year-in-Review documents that work month by month, highlighting key developments, collaborations, and initiatives that shaped our impact.

• Hundreds attended our webinar with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention on January 15.

• We sent a team to New York to meet with journalists, activists and others at the Narrative Convening hosted by Common Justice in partnership with the Poynter Institute.

• PCGVR’s Oronde McClain and Caroline Suárez previewed our new Survivor Connection project on a webinar for members of the Philadelphia Journalism Collaborative at Resolve Philly.

• We launched an ambitious new strategy for 2025 to leverage its expanding national influence and maximize impact.

• The team behind The Second Trauma documentary visited the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU for a screening and conversation titled “Do No Harm: Trauma-Informed Reporting.”

• PCGVR republished the landmark 2024 Surgeon General’s Advisory on Firearm Violence, which declared gun violence as a public health crisis, after it was deleted from federal government sites by the new administration.

• PCGVR Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain delivered the keynote address during the Black Future Leaders Experience Conference, hosted by the Student Association for Black Unity at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

• PCGVR Director of Research Dr. Jessica Beard discussed the latest study from our multidisciplinary research collaborative with Loraine Ballard Morrill, news and community affairs director for iHeartMedia’s six Philadelphia radio stations.

• PCGVR Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain spoke during a Community Voices event at Jefferson University Hospital, presented by the Jefferson College of Population Health, the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education, and Jefferson Humanities & Health.

• The team behind The Second Trauma documentary gathered for a screening and panel discussion at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, co-sponsored by PCOM’s Holistic Approach to Addressing Gun Violence, Student Organizations Council and the Office of Diversity and Community Relations.

• The PCGVR leadership team gathered for our first directors’ retreat, taking part in a comprehensive update and analysis of our programs and operations as we approached our five-year anniversary.

• Director of Research Dr. Jessica Beard and her Penn trauma surgery colleague Dr. Elinore Kaufman wrote an essay published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, identifying federal attacks on research including communication blackouts, funding freezes and cuts at the NIH.

• Oronde McClain introduced the new Survivor Connection project on the Amplify Nursing podcast from the University of Pennsylvania.

• PCGVR director Jim MacMillan and Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain Zoomed into an advanced broadcast reporting class at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

• Students from Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, New Jersey won Honorable Mention in C-SPAN’s 2025 StudentCam competition for their documentary, “Gun Violence: America’s Darkest Achievement,” which included an interview with PCGVR director Jim MacMillan.

• PCGVR Director of Research Dr. Jessica Beard and colleague Dr. Elinore Kaufman updated and revised their recent Philadelphia Inquirer essay, expressing deep and pressing concern with federal funding cuts to gun violence prevention research, for The Guardian, and then discussed the crisis with WHYY.

• PCGVR Director of Operations Eric Marsh and Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain discussed our work on Block by Block, PhillyCAM’s LIVE community news radio program.(Segment begins at 2:45)

• The Association of Health Care Journalists checked in on how PCGVR preserved and republished the 2024 Surgeon General’s Advisory declaring firearm violence a public health crisis in America.

• We launched a three-day Lightning Round fundraising campaign to print and distribute more copies of our Better Gun Violence Reporting Toolkit. We have now distributed nearly 500 printed copies and recorded hundreds of downloads and thousands of views online.

• Philadelphia gun violence survivor Dashawn Walker and filmmaker Jessica Griffin released “Unheard,” a short documentary produced with support from the Credible Messenger Reporting Project.

• Association of Gun Violence Reporters staffers, partners and stakeholders gathered for a brown bag lunch meeting and took part in a panel at the Investigative Reporters and Editors national conference in New Orleans.

• PCGVR Survivor Connection director and gun violence survivor Oronde McClain spoke during several sessions during the Hope Symposium on Gun Violence Prevention at Temple University.

• The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania incorporated PCGVR community-informed news media guidance among their news Resources for Victims of Gun Violence Initiative.

• The Gateway Journalism Review checked in with the AGVR leadership team: New hub aims to shift how journalists cover gun violence.

• Not exactly from PCGVR but: Our Director of Research Dr. Jessica Beard was the senior author and several of our research partners, including first author and corresponding author Dr. Anita Wamakima, published an important new study: Association between police funding and community firearm violence incidence in 61 US cities, 2015–2022

• PCGVR Survivor Connection Director Oronde McClain took part in Our Seat, Our Say, a conversation exploring the impact of gun violence on Philadelphia’s young people, families, and communities, co-moderated by youth advocates and adults.

• July also marked the operational launch of the substantially-expanded and already-busy staff at our new Association of Gun Violence Reporters.

• PCGVR Director of Operations Eric Marsh, Sr. and Survivor Connection Director Oronde McClain checked in from Philadelphia International Airport on their way to The Online News Association’s annual conference in New Orleans.

• We launched a new look, logo and more accessible website here at PCGVR.org.

• We announced the Gun Violence Prevention Reporting National Certification Conference, our biggest event yet.

• We announced that Dr. J. Jean Wright II, New York City Executive Deputy Commissioner for mental health, would keynote our upcoming national conference.

• We produced a video featuring Oronde McClain to introduce our work and take part in Philadelphia Magazine’s Ideas We Should Scale competition.

• Association of Gun Violence Reporters co-director Sammy Caiola and PCGVR director of operations Eric Marsh discussed their on What’s Going On, which plays on iHeart Radio stations in Philadelphia.

• Director of operations Eric Marsh, Sr., represented PCGVR and convened an expert gathering during GPLEX 2025 Chicago, the Economy League’s Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange. GPLEX provides an opportunity to see our region through the lens of another and exposes participants to cutting-edge policies, organizations, and programs to strengthen a diverse community of cross-sector leaders.

• We spent most of our time during September preparing for the national conference.

• PCGVR Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain and Temple University Prof. Yvonne Latty visited Duke University for a conversation and screening of The Second Trauma, our collaborative documentary addressing harmful news reporting practices.

• PCGVR Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain delivered his capstone presentation at the Stoneleigh Foundation, concluding his two-year Emerging Leader Fellowship.

• The Association of Gun Violence Reporters, in partnership with Black Alder Labs, hosted Covering Underserved Communities with Care and Accuracy, a discussion among journalists of color about how to cover gun violence in your own community. AGVR also convened a local meetup at our workspace in Center City Philadelphia.

• The Columbia Journalism School named PCGVR Director of Operations Eric Marsh, Sr., among the 2026 Sulzberger Fellows, a global cohort of newsroom leaders committed to building a more resilient and sustainable future for journalism.

• Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis joined the PCGVR team for an educational webinar in partnership with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency — bringing together state leaders, survivors, journalists, and public health experts to share best practices for reporting on gun violence with accuracy, empathy, and care.

• Sammy Caiola, co-director of the Association of Gun Violence Reporters started her second full-time job as a gun violence reporter, leading a new project for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, reporting on gun violence through the prism of schools and education.

• Sammy Caiola and PCGVR’s Eric Marsh, Sr. of PCGVR discussed AGVR during the annual Klein Camp news innovation un-conference at Temple University.

• Our friends at Philadelphia hyperlocal news site Billy Penn at WHYY took a two–part deep dive into our recent conference, as well as our programs, people and impact.

• We opened an online store, where you can get yourself something and support our work at the same time.

• A new study from PCGVR’s multidisciplinary collaborative concluded that 99.7 percent of firearm violence clips sampled from Philadelphia TV news stations during 2021 contained harmful content: Comparison of community firearm violence news reports across four local television stations in Philadelphia, PA, USA: A quantitative media content analysis

• We began accelerating PCGVR leadership succession and transitional processes which will continue through the first half of 2026.