Palak Raval-Nelson, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Health Commissioner for the Department of Public Health. Dr. Raval-Nelson has worked for the department since 1996 when she began her career as a public health sanitarian. Prior to her appointment as Health Commissioner in 2024, she served as Deputy Health Commissioner. This followed her tenure as a supervisor, manager, administrator, and director of Environmental Health Services.
Dr. Raval-Nelson also serves as adjunct faculty at Drexel University’s School of Public Health and Temple University. She teaches environmental and occupational health, as well as vulnerable populations and the environment. She has presented many papers at NEHA, PPHA, and APHA, and has had several publications in the National Journal of Environmental Health. In 2008, she published her first book, Breast Cancer Politics: An Evaluation of the Current Funding Policies. She has graduated from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute.
Dr. Raval-Nelson has her B.S. in Biology from Temple University, her M.P.H. from MCP Hahnemann University (graduating with the distinguished Hiega Society Award), and her Ph.D. in environmental health and policy from Drexel University. She is a member of the Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society. She was recognized in 2006 by the Society of Women Environmental Professionals as an outstanding woman environmental professional for the Delaware Valley.
Dr. Raval-Nelson is deeply committed to working with vulnerable populations and being a voice for marginalized communities to ensure equity and environmental justice. She has been a civil servant for 28 years and believes in helping people.
Ashley Clark, M.B.A., M.S.A.J.S., started with the City of Philadelphia in 2008 as a paralegal for the DA’s Office, where she managed the financial files for forfeiture cases under the narcotics unit. In 2011, she moved to the Department of Public Health and became the fiscal analyst for Get Healthy Philly (GHP). In this position, she assisted with multi-year 3.7-million-dollar grant budgets, including expenditures, revenue, contracts, purchase orders, audits, and invoices, and collaborated with providers to manage contract spending and invoices.
In 2015, Clark received a promotion to grants fiscal manager of GHP, where she supervised multi-year million-dollar grants. She compiled and submitted financial reports to local, state, and federal agencies, monitored expenditures and budgets to ensure compliance with government policies and procedures, administered procurement and subcontract submissions, which included RFPs, and reviewed/approved budget reallocations. Clark left the City of Philadelphia in 2020 to pursue internal auditing for a governmental agency. She returned to the Department of Public Health in 2024 as the fiscal compliance & training officer.
Clark is a proud Philadelphia native with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Widener University and a master’s degree in fraud and forensic accounting and economic crime from LaSalle University. She is committed to the financial needs of the department and its mission.
Sara Enes, M.B.A., M.S.W., is Chief of Staff and a Deputy Health Commissioner at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. She has been in this role since 2023. As Chief of Staff and Deputy Health Commissioner, Ms. Enes leads innovative and critical Health Department initiatives and functions, including the construction of two new community health centers; representing the Health Department to City Council, Better Services PHL, and Philly Stat 360; spearheading the department’s continuity of operations planning; providing direct supervision of three operational and four administrative divisions; as well as overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Health Commissioner’s Office, including contract maintenance, union grievance, and right to know requests.
Prior to that role, Ms. Enes was the acting director of the Health Department’s Division of Disease Control, overseeing infectious disease control activities for COVID-19, measles and other acute communicable diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis. She also oversaw the department’s bioterrorism and public health emergency planning and response activities.
The bulk of Ms. Enes’ time at the Health Department has been spent in Ambulatory Health Services, working her way up from a Patient Assistance Program Coordinator to Director at both Health Centers #2 and #6. In her role as director, Ms. Enes managed the operations of two multidisciplinary public healthcare centers responsible for delivering primary, auxiliary, and supportive healthcare and services during more than 50,000 patient visits, in more than 40 languages, per health center per year. During her time in the Health Centers, she directed day-to-day operations; assisted in the design and planning of the new Health Center #2 building; established community partnerships; implemented federal and state policies; responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring the safety of her staff, switching to virtual appointments for patients, setting up and implementing COVID testing and vaccine clinics on-site; and developing programs to deliver food and fresh produce to health center patients.
Ms. Enes brings a wealth of academic credentials to her role, including a Master’s of Business Administration from George Washington University, both a Master’s and Bachelor’s of Social Work from Temple University, and she recently completed her certificate in Public Sector Leadership from Cornell University.
James Garrow, M.P.H., has served as Communications Director for the Department of Public Health since 2018. Previously, he held positions with the department as Director of Digital Public Health, Operations and Logistics Manager, and Health Communications Specialist. He has presented internationally on topics of digital media, crisis communications, and emergency risk communication.
Garrow was born and raised in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, attended Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University. He lives in Roxborough with his wife and three children.
Gail Carter-Hamilton, M.S.N., R.N., C.S.N., served as the Pediatric Partnerships Manager in the Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Containment Division from August 2020 until her appointment as Chief Racial Equity Officer in January 2022. In her previous role, Ms. Carter Hamilton was the primary coordinator for the implementation of the City’s COVID-19 guidance and regulations at all schools and early childcare settings in Philadelphia.
Carter-Hamilton completed her B.S. in nursing at La Salle and her M.S. in nursing at Wilmington University. She has served as a school nurse for the Philadelphia city schools and has had the opportunity to care for various populations at local hospitals.
Carter-Hamilton is a Philadelphia native who lives in Mount Airy with her husband, son, and dog Brady.
Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Megan Todd has been with the department since 2019, working most recently as the Director of the Data Lab for the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (CDIP). Before joining the department, she served as lecturer in the Global Health Program and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Health and Wellbeing, both at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Columbia Aging Center and Fellow at the Columbia Population Research Center at Columbia University.
In her time at CDIP, Dr. Todd worked to hire and mentor new epidemiologists and to build a team whose work integrates the role of social determinants of health on public health. In addition, she has developed reports and analyses to build our understanding of the factors that lead to early death and disability and the impact of current departmental efforts to address these determinants.
Dr. Todd has a Ph.D. in Public Affairs and Demography from Princeton University, an MA in Public Affairs from Princeton, and an AB in Economics from Harvard University.