Special Assistant's Biography

Keydron K. Guinn, Ph.D., MA, MBA, is a Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health at Downstate Health Sciences University. He also serves as Special Assistant to the President.

Dr. Guinn previously served as Executive Vice President at Downstate, as well as Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff. As a member of the President’s Cabinet, he worked closely with senior university and hospital leadership, including the deans of Downstate’s five academic schools. He also served as a liaison for institutional and community partners, including the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health and the Brooklyn Center for Health Disparities.

Before joining Downstate, Dr. Guinn was Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Morgan State University, where he oversaw student and academic affairs, supported 11 academic units, and worked alongside the Dean in budget development and management. He also served on numerous university committees, developed student support initiatives, and taught sociology courses.

Prior to Morgan State, he served as Interim Dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Solano Community College in Fairfield, CA, managing five academic units.

At Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN, Dr. Guinn served as Assistant Dean and Interim Executive Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy. He coordinated the Center’s national research agenda, led its National Advisory Committee, and collaborated with academic thought leaders from institutions such as Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University. As Assistant Dean in Meharry’s School of Graduate Studies and Research, he played a key role in establishing a certificate program in health policy while holding associate professorships in Dental Public Health and Graduate Studies and Research, where he taught courses in geriatric dentistry and health policy.

Dr. Guinn also taught graduate courses at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, while serving as Rural Sociologist and Interim Director of the Southwest Center for Rural Initiatives, a subsidiary of Southern University’s Agricultural Research & Extension Center. In this role, he led educational community programs focused on end-of-life issues and youth engagement across a seven-parish region.

With bylines on more than 60 editorials on social justice issues, Dr. Guinn’s work has appeared in Gannett publications, the Vicksburg Post, and the Louisiana Weekly. His academic publications include articles in the American Journal of Medicine, the Disability and Health Journal, and the Journal of Extension. He has also presented at numerous national and state conferences, including the American Public Health Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association of Black Sociologists, the Southern Rural Sociological Association, and within the SUNY System.

Dr. Guinn earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice and an M.A. in Sociology from Jackson State University. He later obtained a Ph.D. in Medical Sociology from Wayne State University, an MBA from Missouri State University, and is currently a candidate for an MPH degree at Brown University.

In addition to being a full professor of Public Health in Downstate’s School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, Dr. Guinn holds a courtesy faculty appointment in the School of Nursing.