In September 2005, Gary R. Gunderson, D.Min., M.Div., became senior vice president of Health and Welfare Ministries for Methodist Healthcare. Gunderson is also the director for the Interfaith Health Program at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

Gunderson’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. 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. His most recent book, Leading Causes of Life, with Larry Pray, was published in 2006.

Gunderson 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 was 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.

Gunderson is a commissioned deacon in the United Methodist Church. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University, Candler School of Theology and the Interdenominational Theological Center.