After more than six years at the helm of the city’s health department, openly gay health commissioner Donald Schwarz is stepping down.
Mayor Michael Nutter announced Schwarz’s departure in a June 27 press conference.
Schwarz was appointed health commissioner and deputy mayor for health and opportunity in 2008 after a career in pediatric medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Schwarz will leave the department July 15 to join the staff of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he will direct the foundation’s Catalyzing Demand for Healthy Places and Practices portfolio.
Schwarz’s previous positions include vice chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and deputy physician-in-chief and Craig-Dalsimer division chief for adolescent medicine at CHOP. Schwartz was also a professor of Pediatrics at University of Pennsylvania’s Schools of Medicine and Nursing. He received his bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a medical degree and a master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in business administration from UPenn’s Wharton School of Business.
His main focus as health commissioner was to combat obesity, smoking and homelessness.
Schwarz is being credited with lowering Philadelphia’s smoking rate by 15 percent, children’s-obesity rate by 5 percent and achieving the city’s first drop in adult obesity in more than a decade.
In last week’s press conference, Nutter commended both Schwarz and other senior staff members who are leaving: human-services commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose and Nutter’s first deputy chief of staff, Suzanne Biemiller.
“These three individuals are some of the most highly respected, trusted, impressive public servants that I have ever had the opportunity to work with,” the mayor said, noting the trio has “served the citizens of our great city with the highest levels of commitment, innovation and humanity in improving the lives of children and adults all across our great city. It is with a great sadness for their departures that I wish them well in their next endeavor.”
Schwarz said in a statement that the strides the city has made in the last six years to become more healthy have been impressive.
“It is gratifying to see the progress that a city can make, even in the face of economic recession, in improving the health and welfare of its residents when we all work together for the common good,” he said.
Philadelphia FIGHT executive director Jane Shull told PGN Schwarz’s work encouraging childhood immunizations, reducing infant-mortality rates and supporting the work of childhood and adolescent programs in Philadelphia “has been incredibly important and exemplary among American health departments,” she said, noting he has also been integral in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“He has been consistently supportive of the work of the AIDS-service organizations in Philadelphia, encouraging us to continue to grow in new directions to respond to the changing epidemic, especially as it affects adolescents and young adults,” Shull said.
Nurit Shein, CEO of Mazzoni Center, echoed those sentiments.
“Donald has been a leader as health commissioner and has worked to better the lives of all Philadelphians, especially those in our community,” she said. “He opened dialogues that enabled our voices to be heard and, along with [AIDS Activities Coordinating Office] has brought new resources to the fight against HIV/AIDS.”