An investigation by AKpublicnews and AmPubMedia found Joe Gerace used a resume that misrepresented his educational credentials and military background to get a job running the city’s health department. He resigned today citing health issues.
August 8, 2022
A joint investigation with American Public Media found that Gerace had falsely presented himself as a high-ranking officer in the Alaska National Guard with a pair of master’s degrees in business administration and physician assistant studies. Thoseled Bronson to appoint Gerace director of the city’s Health Department last year, putting him in charge of the response to a global pandemic and a local homelessness crisis.
Gerace’s year as health director has been marked by a COVID-19 surge that overwhelmed the city’s two largest hospitals, a rash of staff resignations and a homelessness policy that critics say has led to a “humanitarian crisis.” Bronson did not respond to a list of questions about Gerace’s credentials earlier in the day Monday. In a brief phone conversation, Bronson spokesperson Corey Allen Young disputed some of the information presented about Gerace’s credentials. He said the city would not be able to provide answers by Monday afternoon because of Gerace’s medical emergency. He declined to be recorded. Gerace presents himself as a military man — both on his resume and in his personal life.
Unlike the National Guard, ASDF members are not part of the U.S. military, and they aren’t even employees of the state. Until recently, ASDF members were required to supply their own uniforms, which say “Alaska,” instead of “Army.” Under state law, the ASDF is considered part of Alaska’s “organized militia” along with the Guard and the Alaska Naval Militia. It uses ranks that mirror the military’s, but its regulations restrict members from using them outside of official communications.
“He is not a member of the Alaska National Guard,” its communications director Alan Brown said in an email Monday evening. “If [a] current member of the [Alaska Organized Militia] were found to have falsely represented their service, it could result in adverse action.” None of those deployments appear in the Army’s databases, and Gerace admitted during an interview that the claim on the resume was false. But he went on to explain that he had been deployed “through a lot of different agencies” like the Red Cross in “austere conditions, very, very bad conditions, disasters and other stuff.”
In a phone interview, Gerace refused to say where he got his master’s in physician assistant studies, promising to send documentation later. But he claimed he received his MBA from Henry Cogswell College, a small school in Everett, Washington, that went out of business 16 years ago.
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