Dr. Selwyn Rogers

Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, is a widely respected surgeon and public health expert. As founding director of the University of Chicago Medicine Trauma Center, Dr. Rogers is building an interdisciplinary team of specialists to treat patients who suffer injury from life-threatening events, such as car crashes, serious falls and gun violence. His team works with leaders in the city's trauma network to expand trauma care on the South Side. His recent book, Healing the Gun Violence Epidemic, shares the stories of the victims Dr. Rogers has met in his work, and the lessons he’s taken from bearing witness to so much trauma. The book traces the origins of gun violence in the South Side—including decades of generational poverty bred from too little aid—and compares the lives of the young people he treats to his’ own path: from humble beginnings to using his Ivy League education to aid others and, he hopes, to end the cycles that have kept countless people trapped in never-ending agony. In the end, Dr. Rogers shares his insights into what policies have failed and which solutions have succeeded—making him believe that the devastation and trauma can end—not just in Chicago, but across the United States. Dr. Rogers also serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago and Chicago CRED.