Palak Raval-Nelson, PhD, MPH

Palak Raval-Nelson is Health Commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. She has worked for the department since 1996 when she began her career as a public health sanitarian. Since then, she has served as a supervisor, manager, administrator, director of Environmental Health Services, and Deputy Health Commissioner overseeing Environmental Health Services, Air Management Services, the Public Health Laboratory, and the Division of HIV Health.

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.

Raval-Nelson has her B.S. in Biology from Temple University, her MPH from MCP Hahnemann University (graduating with the distinguished Hiega Society Award), and her PhD 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.

Raval-Nelson is deeply committed to working with vulnerable populations and being a voice for marginalized communities to ensure equity and environment justice. She has been a civil servant for 26 years and believes in helping people.