Mary Guinan, PhD, MD
Founding Dean
School of Community Health Sciences UNLV

Dr. Mary E. Guinan is the Founding Dean of the School of Community Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

She currently serves as the Acting State Health Officer, Nevada State Health Division, headquartered in Carson City. She is directly responsible for enforcing all laws and regulations pertaining to public health throughout Nevada, including interpreting, implementing, and providing guidelines for Nevada's Health Division, Board of Health, and public and private entities on federal and state laws and Board of Health regulations. She is also charged with investigating causes of disease, epidemics, sources of mortality, and other matters impacting public health. This daunting mission involves aggressive measures as may be necessary to prevent the spread of sickness and disease through surveillance, intervention, and education. This includes bioterror preparedness.

Dr. Guinan received her Doctor of Medicine from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Texas in Biochemistry and Physiology. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, and Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Guinan is a physician and scientist who worked at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in various scientific and administrative positions for more than 20 years. She served as the Associate Director for Science at CDC which is the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Director of CDC and was the first woman to hold this position. She participated in the worldwide smallpox eradication program and was a member of the first CDC AIDS Task Force that investigated the emerging AIDS epidemic in 1981. Her prestigious work is described in the book and movie "And the Band Played On." Dr. Guinan has been a member of AMWA for more than 40 years and wrote a Women's Health Column for Journal of American Medical Women's Association from 1987 to 1994.