The Chicago Department of Public Health will soon have a new top doctor.
Dr. Olusimbo "Simbo" Ige has been appointed the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, a press release from Mayor Brandon Johnson's office said Monday.
“Dr. Ige is a tremendous addition to not just our administration, but to the City of Chicago,” Johnson said in the release. “Dr. Ige is someone who understands the balance between hard data and community interaction when assessing public health problems and solutions, and with decades of experience in public health, she brings a clear-eyed
understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities that CDPH and our city face, and how we will collectively overcome them."
Ige currently serves as the Executive Director of health equity organization The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the release said. From 2020-2023, Ige also served as the Assistant Commissioner for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the release added
According to Johnson, Ige, who holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery Master of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, will be the first Black, female commissioner to lead the CDPH in a permanent role.
“It is a distinct honor to serve the city of Chicago in this role,” Ige said in the release. “Through collaboration with the Johnson Administration and with community members in Chicago, I am confident that we can improve the health outcomes for all Chicagoans. I have spent my entire career in the public health field, and I look forward to bringing all that I have learned to CDPH.”
Ige, who was selected through a "rigorous and thorough nationwide search," replaces Dr. Allison Arwady, who was fired following Johnson's inauguration after four years on the job.
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“I do want to say thank you to all of those Chicagoans,” she said to NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern after her firing. “Throughout COVID, there has been just so much support for the work of the department. I don’t care about politics. I care about public health.”
Last week, Arwady was been named the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, according to a press release.
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According to the CDC, Arwady will be tasked with executing strategies to curb the impacts of violence, overdose, suicide and injury in the United States.
She will take over the job in Jan. 2024, according to the press release.
