Public Health Networks

Dr. Gunness has served in several public health capacities after earning his master's degree in community health education. Some of many accomplishments providing a glimpse into how he can help your organization include: 

• Establishing a public health consortium among healthcare executives, elected officials, and business owners to address pandemic needs in Southeast Queens
• Developing a COVID-19 pandemic surveillance program at a midsized university
• Overseeing unprecedented Ebola operations at one of the largest airports in the country
• Devising a biohazard communicable disease plan for military, federal, state, and local agencies
• Serving as a HRSA grant reviewer for low- and mid-income countries
• Assessing the capacity/capability of public health and hospital systems in the Northeastern US

No matter the endeavor, Dr. Gunness employs a leadership stye centered on emotional intelligence to resolve underlying program challenges: making them more measurable, scalable, and sustainable. 

Dr. Gunness has mentored and supervised professionals, interns, and students who are looking to advance in their career. His approach is to engage in close collaboration and often "handholding" to help them maximize their potential and reach their goals. He assists with a variety of activities including resume development, personalized needs assessment,  strategic planning, interviewing skills, and dream job (or college) preparations (including personal essay writing): closely monitoring their progress. Dr. Gunness is extremely passionate about empowering the healthcare workforce, especially since his own professional growth took root in a resource-scarce environment. 

After he started out in a substance treatment residential center, Dr. Gunness’ career ultimately progressed to the highest level of public health leadership. He currently sits on the Board of Trustees alongside prior US surgeon generals and their deputies and enjoys vast, deep connections within the industry. Above all else, Dr. Gunness believes anyone can achieve his/her career goals with the right guidance and leadership—particularly in this era of diversity, inclusion, and equity.al and reach their goals. This involves resume development, strategic planning, refining interviewing skills, preparation for their dream job (or college, including personal essay writing), and closely monitoring their progress. He feels very passionate about empowering the healthcare workforce, particularly when his professional growth began in a resource-scare environment. 

Dr. Gunness career began in a substance treatment residential center and progressed to many levels of public health leadership where he currently sits on the Board of Trustees working alongside prior US Surgeon Generals and their deputies. His connection in the industry is vast, deep, and wide. He believes you can achieve anything you want in your career with the right guidance and leadership, particularly in this era of diversity, inclusion, and equity.

  One underlying theme that extends to all of Dr. Gunness’ leadership roles: granting healthcare access to underserved patients and communities. It all started when he served as an HIV coordinator for [insert organization name here], providing said access to HIV-positive patients during a time when healthcare institutions were still learning about the functions/dynamics of difficult-to-reach populations. In subsequent years, he oversaw a multi-site research demonstration project at one of the largest HIV clinics in the country: developing a clinic resource center, establishing the first consumer advisory board, and joining a team that provided comprehensive, high-quality healthcare services. 

Dr. Gunness later refined his skill set as a public health hospital representative, providing technical assistance to over 30 New York State hospitals. Aligning with the populations he’s served, his doctoral dissertation centered on healthcare access among homeless gay/bisexual young men in NYC. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Gunness has worked to develop a critical lens for systematic processes and barriers to healthcare as well as innovative and evidence-based solutions contributing to healthcare institution success.   

With evaluation crucial in early program planning discussions, Dr. Gunness is known for developing and executing new initiatives using performance metrics while also ensuring they are sustainable. Examples of his work in this regard include measuring the throughput of patients diagnosed with a highly infectious disease and the length of time it takes to access healthcare. He has also closely collaborated with NYCDOHMH in the midst of emerging disease outbreaks and mentored/trained public health interns and practitioners to evaluate value-based care, patient satisfaction, web-based referral systems, population health intervention, etc. 

Dr. Gunness had absolutely no filmmaking experience prior to self-producing his documentary. However, having worked in the public health and healthcare space for many years, he possessed a keen eye for capturing hidden community nuances not often observable in social media: those that impede patient access to healthcare and breed catastrophic health outcomes. 

After witnessing the disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Gunness felt compelled to unearth the factors leading to them via a documentary and thus, educate audiences while supporting communities with additional resources. 

Dr. Gunness continues to champion such efforts, shining a spotlight on nuances that negatively impact public health in urban communities.

As a native New Yorker hailing from a working-class immigrant community, networking initially seemed daunting for Dr. Gunness—especially with various personality traits (e.g., ethnic identity, sexual minority issues, and various insecurities) challenging his professional development. 

Lacking the privilege of belonging to a wealthy, educated family with habitual access to resources and services while growing up, he was forced to figure it out on his own while leaning on professors and mentors for help; this is one crucial reason why Dr. Gunness believes professional networking is so critical to one’s growth and leadership in the industry. 

Networking can in fact mean many things to many people—whether they’re looking to secure a job, move up the career ladder, engage in informational interviews, collaborate on a project, or seek out a referral—and ultimately enabled Dr. Gunness to learn, grow, forge lasting friendships, and create opportunities beyond his wildest imagination.