LCDR Gary W. Carter, MPH

Billings Area Indian Health Service

Billings, Montana 59107

Biography

Lieutenant Commander Gary Carter is a Commissioned Corps Officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and is currently attached to the Indian Health Service in Billings, Montana.  He functions as the Billings Area IHS Institutional Environmental Health Officer focusing most of his efforts on occupational health and safety, and emergency planning for healthcare facilities.

Leadership Development Opportunities

Virtually all elements of the Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute (EPHLI) have provided benefits, skills, and knowledge useful in leading meaningful environmental public health efforts.  First, EPHLI has truly enlightened me about my leadership strengths and weaknesses.  The Skillscope^® and Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI^®) reports were extremely useful tools in my self-evaluation.  I have earnestly used the information gleaned from these reports to improve my personal leadership skills and have been enjoying positive results.  Second, I found Systems Thinking to be a powerful tool to be used in seeking solutions to tough environmental public health issues, and almost all of them are tough.  Third, the professional network is in itself an invaluable tool to addressing environmental public health problems.  The future of environmental public health is based in collaborative partnerships to solve problems, and having met so many impressive professionals whose expertise can be accessed with a telephone call or email message is worth its weight in gold.