Guthrie (Gus) Birkhead

Guthrie (Gus) S. Birkhead, MD, MPH is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the College of Integrated Health Sciences, University at Albany. Until 2015, Dr. Birkhead worked at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) for 27 years in positions of increasing responsibility. From 1988 to 1995, he worked in the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control and directed the state’s Immunization Program. From 1995 to 2007 he was the director of the NYSDOH AIDS Institute, the state’s HIV/AIDS prevention and control program. From 2001 to 2007, he was also director of the NYSDOH Center for Community Health (CCH) which included the state’s communicable disease, chronic disease, maternal and child health, nutrition and local public health services programs. From 2007 until 2015 he was Deputy Commissioner and Director of the Office of Public Health, which included responsibility for the AIDS Institute, the CCH, the Center for Environmental Health and the Wadsworth Center Public Health Laboratory.

Research Interests

• Infectious disease epidemiology
• Immunizations
• HIV/AIDS
• Public health surveillance
• Public health workforce
• Community health improvement planning

Teaches

• AIDS Epidemiology (Spring 2020)