Detroit Health Department.

About Detroit Health Department

The Detroit Health Department has provided public health services, and has partnered with neighborhoods and community stakeholders, for over 100 years. The department was able to grow from its focus on communicable diseases to one that had over 40 programs and services at one point. When budgets began to deteriorate, many of those programs and services ended. With the city on the verge of bankruptcy, most of the department's remaining services were contracted out to a private agency, the Institute for Population Health (IPH). However, upon successful progress post-bankruptcy the City of Detroit was able to take control of many of the services that were transitioned to IPH in 2014 and 2015. In 2015, Mayor Mike Duggan hired Dr Abdul El-Sayed to run the department, and he stayed in that role for a little over a year before leaving to run for Governor of Michigan. In February 2017, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, a practicing emergency physician and former Chief Medical Officer of the Baltimore City Health Department, was appointed to lead the department. In September 2019, Denise Fair was appointed by Mayor Mike Duggan to be the Chief Public Health Officer of the Detroit Health Department. On March 2, 2026, Mayor Mary Sheffield appointed Ali Abazeed as Chief Public Health Officer and Director of the Detroit Health Department.