CLOSE MENU
We are delighted to announce that Dave A. Chokshi, previously the 43rd Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will be joining CUNY SPH as a Senior Scholar.
In this role, Dr. Chokshi will help enhance experiential learning and practice opportunities for our students and assist in developing new partnerships with potential employers in all fields of public health, mentor students and contribute to their professional development via the Career Skills Academy and coordinate the development of a new course in health equity to be offered in 2023. He will also serve as advisor to Dean Ayman El-Mohandes.
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Chokshi onboard and know his contributions to the school’s health policy agenda and to our students will be monumental,” says Dean El-Mohandes. “We look forward to our collaboration with great anticipation.”
“It is an honor to join the CUNY SPH community,” Dr. Chokshi says. “As an institution, CUNY makes real the notion of ‘being the change one wants to see in the world,’ and the School of Public Health and Health Policy is focused on ensuring that world is healthier for us all. I look forward to helping advance the SPH mission, particularly around service and action.”
Dr. Chokshi led New York City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including its historic campaign to vaccinate over six million New Yorkers, saving tens of thousands of lives. Dr. Chokshi also designed treatment strategies, navigated school and economic reopenings, and served as principal public spokesperson. His leadership was recognized by CUNY SPH at its sixth commencement this year with the Champion of Public Health Award.
From 2014-2020, Dr. Chokshi served in leadership roles at NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), including as its inaugural Chief Population Health Officer, where he built an award-winning team dedicated to transforming the largest public health care system in the country. He has been a practicing primary care internist at Bellevue Hospital since 2014 and is also Clinical Professor of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Previously, Dr. Chokshi served as a White House Fellow at the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, where he was the principal health advisor in the Office of the Secretary. His prior work experience spans the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.
He trained in internal medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School. He received his M.D. with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction from Penn. He also earned an MSc in global public health as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and graduated summa cum laude from Duke.
