Gary Rotto
Pronouns: He/Him
Adjunct Associate Professor
Health Management and Policy
SDSU
Bio
Gary Rotto has a multifaceted role with the University. He serves as the Director of Federal Government Relations for San Diego State, a position in which he is the point person for relations with members of Congress as well as all Executive Branch agencies and departments. Mr. Rotto engages in policy development, legislative affairs, and identifying opportunities to expand the University’s research and grant opportunities through federal grants and contracts. His work spans all the colleges which comprise SDSU working with the deans and associate deans as well as directly with the Universities scholars.
Professor Rotto continues to serve on the faculty of the School of Public Health. This role allows for Mr. Rotto to integrate practical healthcare policy experience with academic scholarship. Mr. Rotto has over 20 years of experience in public health policy first serving as a policy director for several elected officials and as well as working in the private, non- profit sector. For the over 12 years, his work focused on policy development and advocacy on behalf of Federally Qualified Health Centers. He served on numerous committees and working groups with the state and national association of community health centers and received the Elizabeth E. (Betsey) Cooke Grassroots Advocacy Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers. For over 10 years, we served on the Board of Trustees of the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP) based in Sacramento. Professor Rotto serves on the faculty of the School of Public Health and the Weber
Honors College. He received the Darlene Shiley Honors Faculty Fellowship Award for 2022. As part of the fellowship, Professor Rotto traveled to Vietnam to study how policy implementation in that to stem the COVID-19 pandemic in the Southeast Asian country compared to implementation in the US. He also served on the Science Committee of the Open Ancient Capital Conference on Science & Technology 2022 in Hue, Vietnam. Professor Rotto was the founder “If I Could Change One Thing” the health policy podcast of the School of Public Health. The podcast and Professor Rotto recently received a Gold Finest Award from the Health Care Communicators of Southern California for excellence in the interactive media category. He continues to support the podcast as a guest host.