Mayor Parker picks Palak Raval-Nelson, a deputy health commissioner, to head the agency

Palak Raval-Nelson, a deputy commissioner in the city’s Department of Public Health and an expert in environmental health, will be Philadelphia’s new health commissioner, heading one of the city’s most critical agencies following 10 months of interim leadership.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced the hire during a news conference Monday, saying Raval-Nelson is a “public official who cares about the people of Philadelphia.” She replaces interim Health Commissioner Frank A. Franklin, who led the department while the Parker administration embarked on a nationwide search.

“While we did an inclusive and a comprehensive nationwide search for a new health commissioner,” Parker said, “Dr. Raval-Nelson rose to the top of the candidate list given her extensive experience in public health, as well as her longterm commitment to improving Philadelphia’s health and quality of life.”

For nearly three decades, Raval-Nelson has worked for the city, starting as a food inspector — she described falling “head over heels in love” with public health after her second day on the job, when she removed expired infant formula from a store in Kensington.

Raval-Nelson rose through the ranks, holding a half-dozen titles and often specializing in environmental hazards. She was appointed to be a deputy health commissioner in 2022 and has over the last two years overseen initiatives related to environmental health services and air management.

She is also an adjunct faculty member at both Drexel and Temple Universities.

The hire marks a significant step in Parker’s filling out the top rungs of her administration nearly a year into her first term. The mayor has taken months to make a number of critical hires but has said she would not rush the process of finding leaders whose priorities match her vision for the city.

Parker named a permanent head of the Office of Homeless Services in September. The Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, another major public health-oriented department, remains under interim leadership.

Raval-Nelson will take over the Department of Public Health, a sprawling agency responsible for managing city health centers, overseeing the medical examiner, responding to health emergencies, preventing the spread of infectious diseases, educating the public, and maintaining troves of health-related data.

The agency has seen a tumultuous and scandal-plagued five-year stretch. Franklin in February took over the department after former Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole — who was appointed by former Mayor Jim Kenney and oversaw much of the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — resigned one month into Parker’s tenure.

Prior to Bettigole leading the department in 2021, it was headed up by former Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, who stepped down amid revelations of the city’s mishandling of the remains of victims of the 1985 MOVE bombings, which were discovered in a box in the medical examiner’s office.

Over the past year, Franklin has had a relatively low profile compared to his predecessors, who were often the face of the city’s response during the height of the pandemic and surges in spread of the virus.

Franklin’s most public-facing role this year has been overseeing part of the city’s strategy in Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s opioid epidemic. Parker has vowed to end the open-air drug market in the neighborhood, and her administration has carried out clearings of homeless encampments and an increase in police presence.

Raval-Nelson said she and Parker spoke through the hiring process about their “shared vision” for tackling the opioid crisis. Parker added that she has said repeatedly that she would “not be afraid to make the tough decisions that are necessary to bring some structure and some order back to our city, but in a very dignified and humane way.”

“There has to be a sharing of values in the vision that I promised to you, the people of the city of Philadelphia,” Parker continued, “and we will in no way, shape or form ever compromise on that commitment.”

Inquirer staff writer Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.