Chris Collins, PhD, is an assistant professor of social work in the School of Social Work at Salem State University. He is a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) whose research focuses on privilege and oppression regarding firearm means safety. He developed and piloted Engaging in Lethal Means Safety, an empirically driven, theoretically supported intervention that teaches mental health to first responders on how to engage in means safety discussions with their client systems. As part of the training program, Collins engaged community gun shop partners to offer temporary, off-site storage options to firearm owners who may have been concerned about having firearms in their homes during a developmental or situational crisis.

Collins was recently funded by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center to research the ownership and acquisition characteristics of LGBTQ+ firearm owners in the United States. Collins is also sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, through which he studies the factors associated with and related to deradicalization and disengagement from the “incel” subculture and ideology.

Collins holds an MSW and PhD from Florida State University, where he continues to work as a research affiliate for Maura’s Voice Research Fund. This organization seeks to eradicate violence against women through research and policy.