Professor Emerita
Biography
June Gorski, DrPH is a retired professor of public health and health education with teaching responsibilities for both undergraduate and graduate courses. As a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES), she was involved with the professional preparation and advising of graduate students who selected the community health dducation concentration for the Master of Public Health degree. As faculty coordinator for the adolescent health minor and select health service courses, she collaborated with graduate teaching associates and faculty. Also, she chaired doctoral committees and to date has served on twenty-four dissertation committees. Since 1993 she has been elected to chair the Public Health Academic Program Committee (PHAPC) that facilitates the accredited MPH degree program. Additionally, Dr. Gorski was an Academic Anchor for the Society for Public Health Education.
During her career, Gorski received prestigious awards from the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association as the Outstanding Teacher and for Outstanding Public Service. She was honored as the recipient of the UT Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and by the Commission for Women at UTK who recognized her with the Woman of Achievement Award. For her contributions to Tennessee and her local chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, she was presented with the Order of the Rose Award. She is a life member of the health science honorary, Eta Sigma Gamma, and the Tennessee Public Health Association. Tennessee Donor Services acknowledged her dedication and support of organ/tissue donation by presenting her with the Scholastic Achievement Award. In 1995 an endowment was established, the June D. Gorski Scholarship, to recognize public health and health education students who demonstrate commitment to further the mission of “healthy people in healthy communities.”
She taught a variety of courses including: health instruction for elementary grades; principles and practices of community health education; program planning for community health; international health; and, the public health internships for health educators. She had advising responsibilities for more than 450 MPH graduates who studied community health education.
Her applied research interests focused on the health needs of children, adolescents, and women. She has published in state, national, and international refereed journals. The topics have been on interpersonal violence among youth, strategies for health education, teacher’s health, health care, death education, and safety of adolescent workers. She collaborated with co-principal investigators on funded research from the CDC for reducing childhood lead poisoning and for profiling child fatalities in Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Education invited her to present at the Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Tobacco (PANTS) Health Institutes and to work on the statewide initiative for coordinated school health.
She retired from the University of Tennessee in 2012.
