Gale Burstein, MD, MPH, FAAP, a pediatrician specializes in adolescent medicine, has led the Erie County Department of Health since 2012. She is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine. Dr. Burstein participates in writing national adolescent health care guidelines and has been published in many scientific peer-reviewed journals.
Among many other public health issues, Dr. Burstein has focused on strategies to expand substance use prevention and treatment services; prevent opioid-related overdoses and deaths; decrease health disparities and improve social determinants of health; expand access to sexual health care and reproductive health services; and, decrease childhood lead toxicity.
Dr. Burstein received her MD from the Jacobs School of Medicine in Buffalo, NY; completed a pediatric residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH; received Adolescent Medicine fellowship training at the University of Maryland; and, completed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) STD Prevention fellowship and a Master’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. As a CDC Medical Officer, she worked on adolescent STI prevention programs, policy, and guidelines and directed the first national rapid HIV testing surveillance program.