PHILADELPHIA—The Philadelphia Department of Public Health announces the appointment of Dr. Kinnari Chandriani to the position of Director, Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention. Dr. Chandriani’s focus in this role is to identify and to reduce the structural and systemic contributors to chronic disease and related health disparities. “It is essential that we address the root causes of chronic disease,” says Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, “and Dr. Chandriani’s ability to put a laser focus on prevention and health promotion is critical to our city right now.”

This appointment is not only the culmination of her past eight years in various roles at the Health Department, but also the logical course of a career that all but led her here. Talking about her early career teaching biology to 9th graders in Mississippi, Dr. Chandriani says that “it opened my eyes to health and socioeconomic disparities and how impactful they are on everyday lives. Particularly, I saw how these disparities had a cascading effect on individuals and families, impacting their health, learning, employment, and more.”

After two years observing these effects firsthand, Dr. Chandriani decided to pursue medicine. She attended Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, which included doing research related to health disparities, and was ultimately drawn to pediatrics, bringing her here for a residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Chandriani is quick to point out how this academic background, coupled with eight years at the health department, has enabled her “to more clearly see the importance of improving nutrition, physical activity, tobacco cessation, injury prevention, and critical community and health partnerships in order to reduce chronic disease.” She goes on to say that she “is honored and delighted to take on this role and to build on the existing work that’s been done to address the root causes of chronic disease.”