Lūn Gualnam, MPH

Refugee and local remote communities faced significant gaps in basic infrastructure, including limited access to clean water, adequate nutrition, and essential healthcare services. Identified high prevalence of fecal-oral disease in the records I created. Presented hand hygiene during health talks until the discovery of no handwashing stations in public bathrooms. Structural barriers were the preventing them from being healthy.

While in the field, designed and operated a mobile clinic, built a medical records system from the ground up, and conducted needs assessments to identify priority health and infrastructure gaps. Cultivated in-country partnerships with health officials, school administrators, community organizers, church leaders, and NGOs. Produced a short video capturing life inside the refugee camps. The film's most defining moment is personal: when I interviewed a Zomi woman, Seventh-day Adventist, raised in a village next to where my parents grew up. She shared her story of fleeing gunfire in the middle of the night with her children. On camera, I break down. We are the same tribe, the same faith, the same roots. The only difference is my parents brought me to the United States. That moment is what turned a mission trip into an organization.

Served 1,000+ patients across villages in Mizoram, India through a fully operational mobile clinic. In-country partnerships with health officials, educators, community organizers, and church leaders remain active today, sustaining intervention implementation across sanitation, nutrition, and health education. Domestically, built a parallel network of pastors, NGO leaders, and community organizers who continue to support the initiative through advocacy, community engagement, and resource mobilization.Leveraged storytelling video to expand visibility beyond the field, deepening stakeholder engagement and generating external support for the initiative. Upon returning, I founded a community health organization to sustain and grow the work- recruiting and leading a team of a social media manager, administrative staff, and legal counsel, each contributing their expertise to how the mission is communicated, structured, and protected. What began as a single mission trip became a functioning, people-led organization backed by an active network of partners on two continents.

In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health infrastructure was overwhelmed and under-resource-demanding rapid development of surveillance, investigation, and reporting systems with no established precedent at the scale required. Two years later, the emergence of Mpox presented Harris County Public Health with a parallel operational gap: no standardized case investigation procedures, no patient outreach protocols, no documentation standards, no escalation pathways, and no after-hours coverage infrastructure, all requiring immediate development during an active public health emergency. Subsequently, Houston's CDC Medical Monitoring Project presented a third systems challenge, lacking standardized field procedures, consistent documentation, and efficient participant engagement protocols, resulting in data errors and operational delays across 50+ partner sites.

During the COVID-19 pandemic response at UT Health Science Center, developed and implemented standardized data collection, case investigation, and infectious disease reporting protocols, streamlining surveillance workflows and reducing data entry errors by 20% during one of the most operationally demanding periods in modern public health history. At Harris County Public Health, architected the county's inaugural Mpox case investigation framework, establishing standardized protocols for contact attempt thresholds, patient outreach and correspondence procedures, lead search methodology, issue escalation pathways, and an after-hours rotating on-call system to ensure continuity of outbreak response operations. These systems served as the operational infrastructure for the county's entire Mpox response unit. Subsequently, at the Houston Health Department, developed and implemented comprehensive SOPs, digital workflow tools, and an electronic incentive distribution system for the CDC Medical Monitoring Project, replacing manual processes and improving participant engagement and data integrity. Designed and operationalized an after-hours rotating field schedule to maintain uninterrupted program operations. Onboarded and trained two new staff members. Cultivated and sustained partnerships across 50+ healthcare facilities to support program access and longitudinal data collection.

Across three successive public health roles spanning COVID-19, Mpox, and a federal HIV surveillance program, consistently designed and deployed standardized operational systems under high-stakes conditions- demonstrating a repeatable ability to build procedural infrastructure where none existed, maintain compliance across complex multi-site networks, and sustain program continuity during crisis. Outcomes included measurable improvements in program efficiency, data quality, reporting accuracy, and federal compliance across all three programs. Recognized as Employee of the Month, City of Houston Health Department, November 2024.

Texas community health programs serving underserved and vulnerable populations faced a common set of barriers: fragmented stakeholder ecosystems, underfunded organizational infrastructure, inequitable policy frameworks, and a persistent gap between research findings and real-world implementation. In Bexar County, adolescent behavioral health outcomes were deteriorating with no consensus among the diverse institutions responsible for addressing them. In the disability community, Texas Medicaid income requirements were failing to account for the financial reality of disabled individuals and their family caretakers- contributing to Texas having one of the most disproportionate uninsured rates in the nation.

At the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation, evaluated 70+ grant applications and conducted on-site organizational assessments to determine funding eligibility, translating community needs into actionable funding decisions that directed resources toward programs with the strongest capacity for lasting impact. Simultaneously led the Bexar County Adolescent Behavioral Health Initiative, convening and facilitating multi-stakeholder coalitions, including school districts, pediatricians, teachers, psychologists, counselors, parents, and corporate funders such as HEB, to build consensus around evidence-based behavioral health interventions for children. Navigated competing institutional priorities to move diverse stakeholders from conversation to commitment. At ILRU, conducted mixed-methods research on healthcare access barriers facing disabled Texans and translated findings into direct policy advocacy, presenting data-driven recommendations to Texas state representatives to reform Medicaid income eligibility requirements, arguing that existing thresholds failed to account for the economic burden placed on family caretakers of disabled individuals and the disproportionate healthcare expenses they absorb.

Across three organizations, demonstrated a consistent ability to convene diverse stakeholders, translate complex data into compelling narratives, and move partnerships from formation to action. Contributed to the development and launch of community-driven behavioral health interventions in Bexar County. Strengthened grant evaluation processes at the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation, improving decision-making rigor and organizational accountability. Advanced health equity advocacy at the state policy level, bringing the lived experience of disabled Texans and their families into direct conversation with legislators. Built a track record of turning relationships into infrastructure- exactly the work sustainable global missions programs require.