Charles Gardner

Charles Gardner

Dr. Charles A. Gardner has a PhD in developmental neurobiology from the University of Michigan. He has worked for the US Congress, the National Institutes of Health and as a senior advisor to the World Health Organization. Dr. Gardner served as the health attaché in the US Embassy New Delhi and senior representative of the US Department of Health and Human Services to South Asia. He has also taught healthcare ethics as an assistant professor at Howard University.

Dr. Gardner has 10 years of experience in global health philanthropy as a program officer in the Rockefeller Foundation, Optimus Foundation and Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. He also previously served as executive director of INNCO, a global community of ex-smokers helping smokers quit and defending the rights of people who use safer nicotine. 

The Overlooked Benefits of Nicotine for Mental and Cognitive HealthThe Overlooked Benefits of Nicotine for Mental and Cognitive Health

The Overlooked Benefits of Nicotine for Mental and Cognitive Health

With the rise of tobacco harm reduction (THR) products—including vapes, heated tobacco and pouches—nicotine has increasingly come under attack. Nicotine…

June 12, 2025
Why Aren’t We Celebrating the End of Teenage Smoking?Why Aren’t We Celebrating the End of Teenage Smoking?

Why Aren’t We Celebrating the End of Teenage Smoking?

When I was a teen in a small Midwestern town in the 1970s, the US high school smoking rate was…

September 12, 2022