Gail Emrick

Gail Emrick serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona College of Public Health and has been Executive Director of the SouthEastern Arizona Health Education Center (SEAHEC) since 2008. She is retiring from SEAHEC in August 2024 but continues advocacy as Principal Investigator for an NIH ComPASS award addressing mental and behavioral health access in rural Arizona. Her work focuses on rural, migrant, and border health, workforce development, and community health equity.

Education:

• MPH (Master of Public Health), Columbia University, 1987
• MIA (Master of International Affairs), Columbia University, 1987

Research Interests: Ms. Emrick specializes in global health equity, particularly in Central America and U.S.-Mexico border regions. Her work includes food security programs, strategic public/private partnerships (e.g., with the UN World Food Program), and initiatives to empower marginalized communities like Mayan women in Guatemala and farmworkers in Arizona. She emphasizes structural interventions to address systemic health disparities.

Awards:

• 2021 National AHEC Award for the model farmworker capacity-building program, co-developed with Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health students.

Advising & Grants:

• NIH ComPASS award PI to improve rural Arizonans’ mental health access via CHESI (Community Health Equity Structural Interventions).
• Co-developed a Columbia Mailman-SEAHEC summer internship program, training students to address farmworker health challenges while fostering community health worker networks.

Labs/Teams: Leadership at SEAHEC, collaboration with the UN World Food Program, and the Mayan Women’s Health Network in Guatemala.