About the institute
The Treeline Standard
A tree is a thing. A treeline is a threshold — the altitude where conditions thin out and only the adapted endure. That is where we work, and it is where we took our name.
The Nevada Public Health Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2012 and headquartered in Gardnerville, Nevada — rooted here, with projects, programs, and partnerships supporting rural, frontier, and tribal communities throughout the nation.
Above ten thousand feet in the Great Basin, where the soil is dolomite and the wind never stops, grow the oldest living things on Earth. The bristlecone pines don't survive despite the hard ground; they endure because of it. Slow growth makes dense, resilient wood. Adversity, at altitude, is an advantage.
Rural public health works in the same terrain. Counties without health departments. A single health officer covering three counties from a pickup. Boards of health built from scratch by neighbors. Since 2012, NPHI has strengthened public health capacity across Nevada — providing technical assistance to counties with and without health authorities, developing rural and frontier partnerships, and training the people who hold the line.
And what we learn in Nevada travels. Dendrochronologists once used the rings of a Nevada pine to recalibrate radiocarbon dating for the entire world — local rings, broader truth. In that same spirit, our training, evaluation, health communications, workforce development, capacity building, and technical assistance now support rural, frontier, and tribal communities and partners throughout the nation.
Mission, vision, and how we hold ourselves
Mission
To grow health and well-being in rural, frontier, and tribal communities by training people, strengthening systems, producing honest evidence, advancing trusted communication, and supporting the policies and infrastructure those communities deserve.
Vision
Healthy people in healthy communities across all diverse geographies.
Values
Collaboration and community building. Trust and non-partisanship. Consistency and innovation. And one commitment we state everywhere: findings are returned to the communities that generated them — never extracted.
Our rings
Every year leaves a record. Here are some of the rings that shaped our work.
- 2012
Rooted
The Nevada Public Health Institute is founded as a statewide 501(c)(3), with rural and frontier public health at the center of its work from the start.
- 2016
Reading the data together
We begin hosting Nevada's annual County Health Rankings release events, north and south, with travel stipends so rural partners can be in the room.
- 2021
The rural convening years
The Rural Nevada Public Health Summit brings rural partners and expert speakers together around digital equity, food systems, community health workers, and more — work that now lives on as the rural health track of the NPHA Annual Conference, presented by NPHI.
- 2025
The training home
The Nevada Public Health Training Center (HRSA / Western Region network) and the Nevada Environmental Justice Training Center (EPA Region 9 / BRISA network) consolidate at NPHI — making the institute Nevada's federally networked training home.
- 2025
New leadership
Gerold Delgado Dermid, MBA, PhD(c), becomes Executive Director/CEO.
- 2026
A new pipeline
NPHI is awarded an HRSA Rural Health Residency Planning Grant to build a rural health preventive medicine residency.
Southern Nevada — public health is built around the lives people are already living.
Leadership & board
Gerold Delgado Dermid, MBA, PhD(c)
Executive Director & CEO
Sixteen years of public health institute and federally funded training center leadership, with expertise in health marketing, accreditation, and program design.
Joseph P. Iser, MD, DrPH, MSc
Board President
A board-certified physician in internal, preventive, and occupational medicine who served 24 years with the US Public Health Service before leading the Southern Nevada Health District as Chief Health Officer.
Valerie Haskin, MPH
Treasurer
A systems-minded public health leader who serves as Rural Regional Behavioral Health Coordinator for seven of Nevada's frontier counties, and happiest on horseback in the mountains.
John Packham, PhD, MA
Board Member
Associate Dean of Statewide Initiatives at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and co-author of nearly 100 statewide reports, including ten editions of the Nevada Rural and Frontier Health Data Book.
Jerry Reeves, MD
Board Member
A board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist and former Chief Medical Officer of Sierra Health Services and Humana who now chairs the Desert Meadows Area Health Education Center, growing Nevada's health workforce.
Amanda Brown, MPH
Board Member
A rural health specialist at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine who leads community health needs assessments for Nevada's Critical Access Hospitals and manages the state's Flex EMS Supplemental Grant.