Gary Puckrein

Dr. Gary Puckrein, is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Minority Quality Forum (formerly the National Minority Health Month Foundation), a not-for-profit organization that he founded in 1998. The Forum addresses the critical need for strengthening national and local efforts to use evidence-based, data-driven initiatives to guide programs to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness for racial and ethnic minorities and other special populations. Dr. Puckrein also serves as the Executive Director of the Alliance of Minority Medical Associations, which was formed on the basis of evidence-based data that highlight significant disparities in health-care treatment plans and outcomes among many underserved populations within the United States. In April 2001, the National Minority Health Month Foundation launched National Minority Health Month in response to Healthy People 2010, the national health-promotion and disease-prevention initiative.

Dr. Puckrein was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, where he received his master's degree and doctorate. Between 1974 and 1992, he taught and lectured at Roger Williams College, Brown University, Connecticut College, and Rutgers University, where he was a tenured member of the faculty. Dr. Puckrein has received many awards and honors, including being named a visiting scholar and fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and a visiting fellow at Princeton University. He was publisher of American Visions, the country's leading African American art and cultural magazine, which he launched during his tenure at the Smithsonian Institution and Rutgers University. Dr. Puckrein also created and launched Minority Health Today, which served the needs of clinicians practicing in minority communities.