Food Insecurity: Experiences from a Large Multimillion Dollar Food Distribution Center

About the Speaker

CDR (Ret.) Harlem Gunness, PhD, MPH

Retired Commander Dr. Harlem J. Gunness, PhD, MPH has a long-standing career in public health, serving community-based organizations, hospitals, local, state and federal health departments, private industries and universities. As the prior Director of Public Health Program at St. John’s University, he ran the public health program, conducted research, and built the COVID-19 surveillance and contact tracing initiatives during the onset of the pandemic. While in that role, Dr. Gunness established a public health consortium with executives at NYC HHC to close the gap in health equity and bring about well-needed resources to marginalized communities. Realizing the dramatic gap in COVID-19 vaccination and access to healthcare services, in general, he was inspired to produce a documentary on the structural barriers to COVID-19 vaccination.

Prior to St. John’s University, Dr. Gunness served as a Senior Officer with the US Public Health Service (PHS) stationed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, Quarantine Border Health Services Branch. There, he conducted disease surveillance and epidemiological investigations on highly infectious communicable disease (such as MERS-Covi, MDR-TB, and severe acute respiratory syndrome) and developed public health emergency preparedness programs in the Northeast. As a network extraordinaire, researcher in healthcare access, lecturer, filmmaker, and grant reviewer, Dr. Gunness currently serves on 4 Board of Directors/Trustees to bring health equity to vulnerable communities and beyond.

Sponsored by the College of Nursing and Public Health. This event is presented as part of National Public Health Week at Adelphi University.

For more information, please email Caitlin McElroy.