Gary Gunderson

Rev. Dr. Gary Gunderson is Secretary of Stakeholder Health, a learning group of more than 40 healthcare systems engaging their communities to advance health. He represents Stakeholder Health on the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement of the National Academies of Science and serves on the leadership team for 100 Million Healthier Lives.

As Vice President for FaithHealth at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center he leads a division which includes spiritual care, Clinical Pastoral Education, 37 counseling centers and a highly innovative “ground game” focused on the most vulnerable communities across the state. All of this is done in partnerships with hundreds, indeed, thousands, of faith groups through FaithHealthNC. Gary is known for more than two decades of creative work in the field of faith and public health initially at The Carter Center and Emory School of Public Health and then in Memphis, Tennessee, where the ideas found ground through more than 600 congregational partners showing hard evidence of significant improved outcomes including mortality, cost and dramatically lower hospitalization. The work has been cited by JAMA, AHRQ, AHA, IHI, WHO, IOM the White House, HHS and numerous industry venues.

Gunderson is Professor of Public Health Science in the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Professor of the Health of the Public in the School of Divinity. He is visiting faculty at the University of Cape Town Division of Family Medicine and Public Health where he was one of the founders of the International Religious Health Assets Program.

Gary has authored five books including Religion and the Health of the Public with Dr. James Cochrane by Palgrave/McMillian. This was adapted in a version by The Barefoot Collective as Mobilizing Religious Health Assets for Transformation, illustrated by Kagan Cochrane. Deeply Woven Roots, by Fortress Press has been widely used in seminaries since its publication in 1997. Boundary Leaders, also by Fortress, explores the life and work of those working in community and public health. Leading Causes of Life by Abingdon Press is anchor of a global network of Fellows exploring the life of institutions and their leaders.

Gary is an ordained American Baptist minister with degrees from Candler School of Theology at Emory University and Doctor of Ministry at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta as well as an honorary doctorate from the Chicago Theological Seminary. He is married to Dr. Teresa Cutts, also faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine with four daughters between them: Lauren, Kathryn, Tess and Maya and two grandsons, Charlie and Asa.