Reducing Tobacco Use among African Americans and Youth: What's Menthol Got To Do With It?

Dr. Gardiner received his Doctorate in Behavioral Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley, where he focused on Youth Violence as a public health issue. Throughout his research career, Dr. Gardiner has maintained his community activism to address racial disparities in health, through writing, organizing, evaluating and public speaking. For the past 15 years, Dr. Gardiner has lectured around the country on African American health disparities generally and menthol smoking in the Black Community, particularly. Currently, Dr. Gardiner is the Policy and Regulatory Sciences Program Officer for the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP), University of California Office of the President, where he oversees the scientific inquiry associated with e-cigarettes. Dr. Gardiner speaks regularly around the country on banning menthol cigarettes and regulating electronic cigarettes. In the fall of 2013, Dr. Gardiner led an international webcast on e-cigarettes, with over 700 participating from across the country and around the world (The Vapor this Time). Also in the Fall of 2013, he worked with the Chicago Department of Health to help pass a local ordinance, the first of its kind in the country, to restrict the selling of menthol and other flavored tobacco products within 500 feet of city schools. By 2015, the cities of Baltimore and Minneapolis began discussions on regulating menthol. This past Fall, Berkeley California banned the sale of menthol and other flavored tobacco products around its schools. Additionally, throughout 2014 and 2015, Dr. Gardiner was instrumental in shaping many local e-cigarette regulatory policies around the country, including the cities of Richmond, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Dr. Gardiner is also an adjunct faculty member at Touro University in Vallejo, a graduate medical college, where he teaches a course on Health Disparities. Additionally, Dr. Gardiner is the leader of an independent consultation firm, Gardiner & Associates, whose main evaluation work has centered on health disparities. And lastly, Dr. Gardiner is Co-Chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC), a group of Black professionals dedicated to fighting the scourge of tobacco impacting the African American community in California and Nationally.