PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia finally has a new health commissioner. Nearly a year into her term, Mayor Cherelle Parker has elevated a deputy who has been with the department for nearly 30 years.
“It is my honor and privilege to be chosen in this role,” said Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, who started with the Health Department as a health inspector in Kensington in 1996.
“My second day on the job, I was able to remove expired infant formula from the shelf of a corner store. And that is when I fell head over heels in love with public health,” she said.
“What an immediate impact for families who didn’t speak the language, whose babies would have died or gotten really sick, and while I was potentially on the path of med school, I decided to stay and focus on public health.”
Raval-Nelson, who arrived in the U.S. not knowing English, has a masters and PhD in public health and has held six different positions in the Health Department, most recently as the first deputy commissioner. She also teaches at Drexel and Temple.
Parker says Raval-Nelson’s history with the department is one of her key assets.
“This is a public servant who knows our Department of Public Health, and this is a public official who cares about the people of Philadelphia,” said Parker.
“She is fully aware of our demographic social determinants of health and how they affect someone’s life trajectory.”
As to why it took nearly a year to appoint someone who was already a deputy commissioner, the mayor said she wouldn’t be rushed.
“We had to make sure the synergy was right, the skill set, the preparedness, the proficiency.”
Parker has shown a preference for city residents to fill her cabinet but she says she did a national search before selecting Raval-Nelson.
The mayor still hasn’t appointed a commissioner for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities.