Politics & Government

Levy Picks New Chief Deputy Health Commissioner

Tabs Dr. Eli Avila for the high standing medical post.

Dr. Eli N. Avila has been appointed as Chief Deputy Commissioner in the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

Dr. James Tomarken was confirmed by the County Legislature on March 23 and began as commissioner on April 17. Dr. Avila will begin as chief deputy commissioner on Wednesday, April 28, according to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's office.

"Our nationwide search for a health commissioner earlier this year yielded two outstanding candidates: Dr. James Tomarken and Dr. Eli Avila," said Levy in a statement. "We are extraordinarily pleased that we have been able to attract both candidates to serve the people of Suffolk County."

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"Given the dynamic and diverse nature of Public Health, I look forward to the charge of safeguarding the health of all the people of Suffolk County," said Dr. Avila, in the same statement.

Dr. Eli Avila, MD, JD, MPH, FCLM, was most recently a physician with the Department of Health and Human Services' Federal Occupational Health Service in Albany, as Senior Examining Occupational Medicine Physician for all federal agencies in the region. He has trained in internal medicine, ophthalmology, occupational and environmental medicine, and is also a practicing attorney and public health professional.  In addition, he practices law in New York City for an environmental biotechnology company. 

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Dr. Avila was previously a Fellow in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and was a medical consultant for the State of Connecticut correctional facilities.

He graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brown University and a Doctor of Medicine from Brown University School of Medicine. Dr. Avila also holds a law degree (cum laude) from St. John's University and a Masters of Public Health from Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine and is one of only three hundred MD/JD's in the United States to be board certified in legal medicine by the American Board of Legal Medicine. For 12 years, he held an academic faculty position at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons in the Department of Ophthalmology. 


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