Faculty Profile: Brian L. Harper

Medical Director Brian L. Harper, M.D., M.P.H., knows what it takes to deliver quality medical care in public and private settings. For more than two decades, he has worked as an advocate to improve access to quality medical care for all people.

We have very dedicated, knowledgeable, caring clinicians at NYIT, says Harper, who works to expand awareness of NYIT's Academic Health Care Centers (AHCC) in Old Westbury and Central Islip, N.Y. With the ever-growing need for quality healthcare, there is a need to increase the visibility of the services we offer. This can be accomplished by increasing community outreach, focusing on public health needs, and assuring that we have a high quality of care.

Harper's connection to the College of Osteopathic Medicine goes back to the mid-1990s, when he was a guest lecturer on topics such as HIV, communicable diseases, and health disparities. In 2004, he was appointed the first African-American commissioner of health for Suffolk County, N.Y., and helped to develop a proposal for NYIT's AHCC in Central Islip with Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., vice president for health sciences and medical affairs.

His expertise is focused on providing medical services to diverse populations throughout Long Island and New York City. Over the years, Harper has overseen all of the health centers operated by Nassau and Suffolk Counties. He previously served as the first director of the Bureau of HIV Services at Nassau County Department of Health and as senior vice president of community affairs and medical director of the Community Health Centers at Nassau University Medical Center.

Harper started innovative programs for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, such as an office to address minority health inequities, a commission to find ways to curtail the HIV epidemic, and an institute to investigate long-standing public health problems in collaboration with Stony Brook University. Prior to his tenure at NYIT, he served as chief operating officer and medical director of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, a private partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Harper attended Brown University for his undergraduate degree in Biology, and earned his medical degree at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, N.Y. He then received a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University in New York City. Harper is board certified in preventive medicine and general public health.

We continue to expand the scope of our services with new initiatives such as the NYIT Center for Sports Medicine and our new clinical services in the specialty of neurology. We will re-focus our efforts to provide care for students, faculty, and staff while also providing services to the community. This all takes place as we provide quality training for our medical students at NYIT, Harper says.