Dr. Michelle A. Gourdine is a primary care physician, health policy specialist, and expert in preventive health and wellness. Throughout her medical career, she has felt compelled to not simply treat disease but also keep people from getting sick in the first place. As an author and speaker, she seeks to empower individuals to make better health choices for themselves, their families, and their communities.
As CEO and Principal Consultant for Michelle Gourdine and Associates LLC, her belief in the right of every human being to be healthy drives her firm’s special emphasis on improving the health of disadvantaged communities. Michelle Gourdine and Associates is dedicated to creating a health care system in which all people benefit equally by developing policies that make the healthy choice the easy and affordable choice.
She wrote her new book, Reclaiming Our Health: A Guide to African American Wellness (Yale University Press), because African Americans are affected by obesity, high blood pressure, cancer, and other serious health conditions at far greater rates than other Americans. Her book reveals the unique cultural factors that influence African American health and provides motivation and practical steps for the readers to follow to live longer, happier, and more prosperous lives. Her advice and book have been recently highlighted in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, and Essence Magazine.
Gourdine is a Pediatrician who earned her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She currently is Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Senior Associate faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is the former Deputy Secretary of Health and Chief Public Health Physician for the state of Maryland, and former Health Commissioner for Baltimore County Maryland. Dr. Gourdine’s practical advice has won her the trust of audiences nationwide and garnered numerous speaking requests from organizations including the National Urban League, the American Diabetes Association, the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the Black Entertainment Television Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the Institute of Medicine, Howard University, 100 Black Men of America, and the National Association of Health Services Executives.
