Rev. Dr. Gary Gunderson

Rev. Dr. Gary R. Gunderson, D.Min., M.Div. Sr. Vice President for Health and Welfare Ministries, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare, and Director, Center of Excellence in Faith and Health, MLH; Faculty, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.

Gary's two leadership roles focus on building the capacity of religious institutions to advance health and wholeness. Since the Interfaith Health Program began at The Carter Center in 1992, Gunderson has explored the confluence of health and faith by working with an international network of community leaders and multi-disciplinary scholars. That work has now “come to ground” in the Center of Excellence in Faith and Health at Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare. He is the author of several books, notably Deeply Woven Roots and Boundary Leaders (Fortress Press, 1997 and 2004), many articles and hundreds of speeches and presentations to religious and science groups. Leading Causes of Life, with Larry Pray, was published in 2006 (Center of Excellence in Faith and Health).

Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare is one of the largest health systems in the United States with 10,000 employees, seven hospitals and a complex array of services and community partnerships. It is owned by the United Methodist Conferences of Memphis, Mississippi and Arkansas. The Health and Welfare Division is responsible for the continuum of pastoral services, which include those offered inside the walls, as well as through partnerships with congregations and community partners. The division works closely with the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries by coordinating several of its national networks of health ministries and cooperates with international ministries in Africa and Russia. The newly formed Center of Excellence in Faith and Health will serve as an innovative conduit and engine for harnessing the best intelligence/leadership in the faith health arena from across the globe and will bring those resources to test those best practices in the local field site of Memphis.

Under Gary’s leadership, the IHP has been in a long-term partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government entities. This includes the development of the Institute for Public Health and Faith Collaborations which has trained dozens of teams of leaders from 19 states. IHP has served as one of the intermediaries for the Compassion Capital Fund of the Department of Health and Human Resources in partnership with 10 foundations. He is the primary Investigator for a landmark contract with the World Health Organization for mapping the religious health assets of two African countries along with scholars from the University of Cape Town (where he serves as visiting faculty) and the Universities of KwaZulu Natal and Witswaterstrand. In 2005 Dr. Gunderson was one of Emory University’s top 100 funded research scientists.

Gary serves on a range of national and international advisory boards. He served on the Institute of Medicine panel examining the role of U.S. voluntary human resources in the expanded response to HIV/AIDS. He is an advisor to the Duke Divinity School Center on Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, the Chicago Theological Seminary Center for Community Transformation and Wesley Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry program. He is the co-chair of the 2006 Congress on Urban Ministry of The Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE). He continues to serve as faculty for the Department of Global Health of the Rollins School of Public Health and for the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

Gary is a commissioned Deacon in the United Methodist Church. He graduated from Wake Forest University (BA, History), Candler School of Theology (M.Div., Honors, Summa Cum Laude) and the Interdenominational Theological Center (D.Min.). He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2006 for his ground-breaking work in religious health assets mapping in sub-Sahara Africa. He has been married to Karen for 33 years, with two daughters, Lauren (25) and Kathryn (18). After three decades of attending Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, the Gundersons now belong to St. John’s United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.