Ex-Anchorage health director calls his lies about military, education and medical credentials ‘a ticking time bomb’Former Anchorage Health Director Joe Gerace oversees the shuttering of the Sullivan Arena mass shelter on June 30, 2022. Gerace resigned this week after a report revealed that he had vastly overstated and misrepresented both his educational credentials and military background.
Curtis Gilbert is an investigative reporter at American Public Media, and he was part of the team that broke the story.: Curtis, who is investigating Joe Gerace right now?: First of all, you’ve got Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration. You know, the mayor’s office is looking into how Gerace’s lies about his time in the military, his education and his medical credentials seemingly went unchecked when Mayor Bronson nominated Gerace as health director last year.
: Yeah, it’s this volunteer organization of just about 200 people, and it helps out the National Guard during disasters. The Defense Force, it’s part of state government, but it’s not part of the U.S. military. And in spite of that, Gerace used his position in the Defense Force to pose as an officer in the Alaska National Guard. Now, after our story ran, the Defense Force launched an investigation into Gerace, and that is now complete.
: Yeah, and now that all goes back to Gerace’s EMT license. It’s suspended now because of this investigation that’s still ongoing. I got a copy of Joe Gerace’s license application from 2019, and it falsely stated that he had a master’s degree. That’s something similar to what he told the city of Anchorage, and also said that he had EMT licenses in five other states. Now, he did have licenses a long time ago in Washington and Virginia.