Allison Arwady

Allison Arwady, MD, MPH

Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH)

Dr. Allison Arwady, MD, MPH, is the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), charged with leading the nation’s third-largest city’s health department. Dr. Arwady has been at CDPH since 2015, where she initially served as Chief Medical Officer, overseeing the disease control, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and behavioral health divisions, before being confirmed as Commissioner in January 2020. Prior to CDPH, she worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. With CDC, she worked on HIV and tuberculosis in Botswana, and international outbreak responses in Saudia Arabia (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and Liberia (Ebola). While based at the Illinois Department of Public Health, she responded to disease outbreaks across the state. She has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University, and completed medical school and clinical training at Yale University. Dr. Arwady is a board-certified internal medicine physician and pediatrician, a member of the American Colleges of Physicians, and continues to see primary care patients regularly.