Jeffrey Swanson is Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He holds a PhD in sociology from Yale University and is an expert in psychiatric epidemiology, mental health services effectiveness research, and mental health law and policy studies. Dr. Swanson is co-director of the UNC-Chapel Hill/Duke Postdoctoral Training Program in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and Systems Research. He is a Faculty Fellow at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy. He also directs research for the National Resource Center on Psychiatric Advance Directives. Dr. Swanson is the author or co-author of over 180 publications on topics including violence and severe mental illness, policies and laws to reduce firearms violence, the impact of involuntary outpatient commitment law, and psychiatric advance directives. He received the 2011 Carl Taube Award from the American Public Health Association and the 2010 Eugene C. Hargrove, MD Award from the North Carolina Psychiatric Foundation, both for outstanding career contributions to mental health research. He is the recipient of the 2013 NARSAD Distinguished Investigator grant from the Brain and Behavior Foundation. He is currently principal investigator of a multi-site study on firearms laws, mental illness and prevention of violence, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Program on Public Health Law Research. Dr. Swanson was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment. He served as Associate Editor of Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. Dr. Swanson has served as a consultant to policymakers at the state and national levels, public health care institutions, foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and legal firms.