American Democracy & Health Security

American Democracy and Health Security

Lighting a path forward amid pandemic Polarization

Gary Anthone


Chief Medical Officer, Vetter Senior Living
Former Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Division of Public Health
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Anne Zink

Dr. Gary Anthone is the Chief Medical Officer of Vetter Health Services and the former Chief Medical Officer and Director of Public Health of the Department of Health and Human Services for the State of Nebraska. He is a surgeon who has served at the Nebraska Methodist Hospital/Creighton University Department of Surgery and the University of Southern California Department of Surgery. He completed his Surgical Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, has an MD from Creighton University and a BA from Benedictine College. He is married to his wife of 42 years, Annlouise and has 6 children and 10 grandchildren.​

“I had text and personal phone calls with every major hospital every morning for almost a year and a half during the pandemic.”

“I was a surgeon. I wasn’t an infectious disease doctor. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about incident command structure. It would have been totally invaluable to me to have better training upfront on incident command structures and pandemic decision-making. I did eventually learn it, but it would have been nice to have it up front.”

Gary Anthone

Chief Medical Officer, Vetter Senior Living

Former Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Division of Public Health Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Anne Zink

Dr. Gary Anthone is the Chief Medical Officer of Vetter Health Services and the former Chief Medical Officer and Director of Public Health of the Department of Health and Human Services for the State of Nebraska. He is a surgeon who has served at the Nebraska Methodist Hospital/Creighton University Department of Surgery and the University of Southern California Department of Surgery. He completed his Surgical Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, has an MD from Creighton University and a BA from Benedictine College. He is married to his wife of 42 years, Annlouise and has 6 children and 10 grandchildren.​

“I had text and personal phone calls with every major hospital every morning for almost a year and a half during the pandemic.”

“I was a surgeon. I wasn’t an infectious disease doctor. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about incident command structure. It would have been totally invaluable to me to have better training upfront on incident command structures and pandemic decision-making. I did eventually learn it, but it would have been nice to have it up front.”