Cheryl Bettigole, MD, MPH served as the Health Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia from 2021-2024 and is now on the faculty of Penn’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, where she is working on developing collaborative strategies to prevent early deaths in West and Southwest Philadelphia. As commissioner, she oversaw the development of a five-year strategic plan that included centering equity in Health Department work, improving access to primary care, and preparing for future public health emergencies. Dr. Bettigole led the department’s efforts to respond to mass displaced person events, including Afghan and Ukrainian evacuees and migrants bussed from the border, collaborating with local, state, and federal partners to create new models of care for migrant populations. She worked with the Board of Health, the Air Pollution Control Board, and community stakeholders to pass innovative public health policies including a groundbreaking air toxics regulation. The Health Department also renewed its accreditation under her direction.
She is a board-certified family physician and previously served as the Health Department’s Director of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, as Chief Medical Officer of a community/migrant health center in New Jersey, and as a physician and clinical director with Philadelphia’s City Health Centers, where she saw patients for more than 12 years. She is also a Past President of the National Physicians Alliance (now part of Doctors for America), where she helped develop teams focused on gun violence prevention and drug safety and pricing, while continuing the organization’s work on access to care.
