David Gere, Ph.D., is the founding director of the UCLA Art & Global Health Center and is a professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where he teaches courses in arts activism. His extensive writing and global curatorial projects address arts-based public health interventions and projects. Through the UCLA Art & Global Health Center, Gere and his students engage local and global communities, from the UCLA Sex Squad’s performances in LAUSD high schools to the Through Positive Eyes initiative in cities around the world, including Mumbai. Art & Global Health Center programs operate across five continents and engage and encourage local artist communities to take on public health issues in accessible and entertaining ways.
Gere spent three years teaching at American College in Madurai, Tamilnadu, India, as an Oberlin Shansi Fellow. Later, on a Fulbright Fellowship based in Bangalore, he founded MAKE ART/STOP AIDS, an international consortium of AIDS “artivists.”