DR. VINCE GIL is Distinguished Professor of Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology at Vanguard University of Southern California, Costa Mesa.  His Ph.D. is from UCLA. He completed a post-doc from the Masters and Johnson Institute (sexual medicine), and further postdoctoral work from UCLA’s School of Public Health (social and clinical epidemiology, health promotion education).  For the past twenty-seven years Dr. Gil has undertaken research and teaching projects in clinical settings in the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, and China, specializing in cross-cultural medical education on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

He has worked under grants from AmFAR, University-Wide AIDS Research (UCs), and sponsorships from MedMira Laboratories Canada. He is recipient of three National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.  In 2001, he was honored with the Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award from COCHE, and has been selected three times as Teacher of the Year by students at his university. 

Dr. Gil consults on projects in international health that center around effective understanding of patient populations, health care delivery systems efficiencies within the frame of cultural competence and appropriateness. He has worked in the arena of HIV/AIDS epidemiology since 1989. During the last five years Dr. Gil has led medical teams and delegations overseas to train physicians and nurses, pharmacists and laboratory personnel on the clinical and care aspects of managing patient populations with HIV/AIDS.  He has helped hospitals in China open HIV clinics, worked with national and provincial governments, with medical and nursing schools on improving their curricula, patient through-put; and has helped jump-start such programs as community health nursing in Sichuan, China—a new venue for nursing education. Dr. Gil was also one of the first to introduce rapid HIV tests to clinical populations in Asia.

The confluence of his work in hospital and clinical settings recently merged with his former design background (first degree in design and illustration, Art Institute of New York ) and “pre-health” work on community development and planning with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,  to enable his interest in health care design and delivery.  He has been an affiliate member of the Center for Health Design, which sponsors integrative approaches to the design of health care facilities in the U.S. and abroad, inclusive of physical design, health informatics, and health care delivery efficiencies.  His recent collaborative project with the CHD centered on merging research from the fields of medical anthropology and health care design to effect greater inclusion of patient-centered services, and optimize healing environments.

Dr. Gil has authored over 44 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and presentations in the fields of  medical anthropology, social epidemiology, HIV/AIDS epidemiology, cross-cultural issues in health care delivery, and on specific ethnic patient populations in  U.S., China, and the Caribbean.  He is a member of the American Academy of HIV Medicine, Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Sexology, the American Board of Sexology; past Board Member of the Society for Applied Anthropology, and member of the American Anthropological Association. Dr. Gil is also an affiliate partner in the firm of Royer Systems Integration (Cedar Park, TX), which specializes in healthcare informatics internationally.

Contact At:
VANGUARD UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 1(714) 556-3610-2611