Wingman-Connect Program: A Network-Health Suicide and Depression Prevention Program for Air Force Trainees

Peter Wyman, Ph.D.
University of Rochester School of Medicine

Anthony R. Pisani, Ph.D.
University of Rochester School of Medicine

Bryan Yates, BA
University of Rochester School of Medicine

C. Hendricks Brown, Ph.D.
Northwestern University

ABSTRACT:
Suicide has been a leading manner of death for military members in recent years. In this talk, we will describe a Dept of Defense-funded initiative to develop and test a universal prevention program for Airmen in training. The Wingman-Connect Program applies a network health approach to enhance protective group processes in natural organizational units including cohesion and diffusion of healthy norms among members. We report results from a cluster- randomized clinical trial testing impact on airmen through a 6-month follow-up period.

Who’s Next? Using Network Science to Understand and Do Something about Gun Violence

Andrew V. Papachristos, PhD
Department of Sociology, Northwestern University

Abstract: It’s a cliché to say “we live in a connected world.” But we do. Over the last twenty years, the field of Network Science has consistently demonstrated that the ways in which people are connected affect what we feel, think, and do. The structure of social networks have a profound impact on the friends we make, the people we marry, the votes we cast, the diseases we catch, and the ways we think. This presentation explores how network science might help us better understand gun violence in American cities. This talk explores how mapping and analyzing social networks can help predict the victims of gun violence in U.S. cities as well as offer possible pathways to guide gun violence prevention efforts.