Dr. Ashlee Jaffe: When Tragedy Becomes Purpose—A Physician’s Journey from Survivor to Advocate
As Co-Director of Advocacy Education for OnCall4Kids, Dr. Ashlee Jaffe has transformed one of life's most horrific experiences into a powerful force for community protection and healing across the Main Line and beyond.
For Dr. Ashlee Jaffe, the journey from pediatric rehabilitation medicine physician to leading firearm injury prevention advocate wasn’t planned—it grew from necessity. As Co-Director of Advocacy Education for OnCall4Kids, a non-partisan coalition of healthcare professionals working to end the leading cause of death for children – gun violence, Dr. Jaffe has transformed personal trauma into purposeful action that’s creating ripple effects throughout our community.
Dr. Ashlee Jaffe is a 2025 Main Line Parent Women of Influence Award Winner
Main Line Parent’s Women of Influence Awards celebrate exceptional women making significant impacts in our community. Ashlee was nominated and selected based on her achievements and dedication to creating positive change in her community. Each Women of Influence Award Winner has committed to support Family Focus Media’s core values. Together, we are committed to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment for all for all families. All backgrounds, races, genders, and sexual orientations are welcome and safe with us.
Beyond the awards, our Women of Influence Luncheons and Speed Networking Night attendees come together as our Women of Influence Network, a community fostering connections, collaboration, and mutual support.
From Trauma to Purpose
Dr. Jaffe’s advocacy is rooted in personal tragedy. In 2022, she was shot alongside her family— including her then-5-year-old son—during the Highland Park July 4th parade mass shooting. The injury ended her clinical career, but it sparked something unexpected.
“It didn’t start out as intentional,” Dr. Jaffe explains. “It started out feeling like this had to mean something, and I was not willing to just sit in the horror and the trauma.” A friend’s early advice stayed with her: “One day you’ll figure out what to do with this—you don’t have to figure it out today.”
That process led Dr. Jaffe to realize her unique vantage point as a physician who had cared for countless children with firearm injuries and now a survivor herself. “I had seen so many of my patients injured by firearms and understood what that looked like at the bedside with these families and these children that were injured and their whole lives were changed. And then I was sitting there and my whole life had changed.”
Building Confidence Through Small Steps
Dr. Jaffe’s advocacy journey began modestly—attending lobbying visits and sharing her story in small rooms with senators’ offices. “It took a lot of bravery and courage to start just getting out and telling my story,” she reflects. As her comfort level grew, so did her impact.
“The more comfortable I got sharing my story, the more powerful it became and the more impact I could have,” she says. This realization led her to become more proactive about making a difference—in her community, synagogue, school district, and workplace.
Working alongside childhood and medical school friends who founded OnCall4Kids, also survivors of the Highland Park shooting – Dr. Jaffe discovered that physicians hold a unique kind of credibility on Capitol Hill. “OnCall4Kids found that legislators weren’t that impressed with crying parents whose children had been murdered, yet the physicians that had data and facts were the ones that were listened to more.”
Teaching the Next Generation of Advocates
Dr. Jaffe’s current work focuses heavily on education—both for healthcare providers and the broader community. She’s particularly excited about a recent initiative to lecture pediatric rehabilitation medicine fellows nationally, combining storytelling with evidence-based firearm prevention legislation.
“Very soon after July 4th, survivors from July 4th and survivors from Uvalde were lobbying on the hill,” she explains. “As a nonpartisan group of healthcare workers, we bring a unique credibility and engagement when we’re on Capitol Hill. People listen differently when we focus on the public health impact of firearms—especially since firearm injuries became the leading cause of death among children in 2020.”
Her success in mentoring other healthcare providers is evident in stories like that of a physical therapist colleague who had never done advocacy work. After Dr. Jaffe coached him through his first lobbying day, he returned six months later as one of the meeting leaders and recently co-ran a Philadelphia fundraising event for OnCall4Kids.
Transparent Parenting Through Trauma
Perhaps most remarkably, Dr. Jaffe and her husband have embraced radical transparency with their son, now eight. “He knows what a lobby visit is. I am able to proudly tell him that I am working hard every day to try to make the world safer for him.”
Their son’s understanding runs deep. He once questioned why intruder drills had children hiding behind drywall when he had hidden behind brick, knowing brick is more likely to stop bullets. The family navigates this reality with care, ensuring camp counselors and other adults understand their son may react differently to emergencies due to his trauma and lived experience.
“We don’t want him afraid of the world,” Dr. Jaffe says. “We have taken him to many things that were actually a stretch for us emotionally because he was asking to go and we didn’t want him to be afraid.”
Community Impact Through Stop the Bleed Training
Beyond policy advocacy, Dr. Jaffe brings life-saving skills directly to communities through Stop the Bleed certification training. Her most memorable session was in her own Malvern neighborhood, where she offered age-appropriate instruction for elementary, middle school, high school, and adult participants.
“Kids as young as five can learn these skills—how to hold pressure or call for help in the case of an emergency,” she explains. The training prepares families for all types of bleeding emergencies, from sports injuries to kitchen accidents involving adults on blood thinners, not just traumatic events.
Dr. Jaffe also promotes Be SMART, an American Academy of Pediatrics initiative that equips parents with the language to ask about unsecured firearms before playdates. “If you have a whole group of people who are willing to agree to keep weapons safely locked up while children are playing, there’s a lot of evidence that can help decrease firearm injuries.”
Staying Nonpartisan in a Polarized World
OnCall4Kids remains nonpartisan by focusing on data-driven, evidence-based solutions. “We’re showing up with data and evidence,” Dr. Jaffe explains. “We ask hard questions of the data and present facts in an unbiased way.”
The organization tailors its messaging to resonate across political lines, often emphasizing widely supported measures like child access prevention laws. “Most people don’t think that three, four, or five-year-olds should be able to get unsecured weapons and play with them,” she notes.
Dr. Jaffe frames the work as public health advocacy, similar to how seatbelt laws and anti-smoking campaigns developed. “Firearm injuries are the number one cause of death in children in this country, and we have nowhere near the research funding or legislation to keep children safe from this public health epidemic.”
Advice for Women Turning Challenges into Leadership
Dr. Jaffe’s counsel for other women seeking to transform personal challenges into community leadership is both practical and compassionate. First: “You need to be sure that you are taking care of yourself as you embark on this journey.” She stepped back from board duties during the shooter’s trial, recognizing her limits.
Second: “Don’t try to change everything all at once. Partner up with organizations that are doing the work you want to do initially and try to take on a single volunteer role.” She emphasizes starting small—attending events rather than planning them, volunteering rather than leading initially.
Looking Forward
Dr. Jaffe already feels she’s exceeded her expectations by equipping “a few dozen people that are more capable of responding in a bleeding emergency or feel like they can confidently go into an advocacy visit.” But her ultimate goal is more personal: becoming a resource for other survivors.
“I would love to become sort of a buddy for somebody—not that I want more people in this situation, but it’s happening all the time. If somebody could reach out to me and see that you can get through this and emerge on the other side, having grown and developed and feeling like you’re trying to make change, I think that would be phenomenal.”
OnCall4Kids’ next lobbying day is planned for winter 2026, pending the congressional calendar release. Until then, the organization continues its social media campaigns and community outreach efforts.
Dr. Jaffe’s story is a powerful reminder that even in our darkest moments, we can choose how to respond. Her choice—to transform personal tragedy into community protection—offers a model for how healthcare providers can extend their healing mission beyond individual patient care. Through her work, she’s not just helping to prevent future tragedies; she’s showing other survivors that it’s possible to move forward in a way that honors both their pain and their power to create change.
