Ex-Peace Corps officer Joanne Godley is new city medical director
Ex-Peace Corps officer is new city medical director
By Aparna Surendran
Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Philadelphia has named a new medical director, Joanne Godley, a former Peace Corps medical officer in Africa and public-health official in the city.
Godley, 49, appointed by Health Commissioner John Domzalski, started work yesterday.
"She will guide the Department of Public Health in its development of medical policy and serve as the principal adviser of medical affairs," Domzalski said.
Her specific duties will include overseeing the city's health policy in such areas as infant mortality, child lead poisoning, and child immunizations, he said.
State law requires the city to have a medical director with a medical degree, unless the health commissioner is a physician. Domzalski, the commissioner since February, has a master's in public health but not a medical degree.
For the last three years, Godley worked as a Peace Corps medical officer in western and southern Africa, where she was responsible for managing 25 physicians and nurses who cared for about 1,300 Peace Corps volunteers in 12 countries, she said.
Godley also oversaw preventive health training for the volunteers.
"Being in a position to look at preventive health will come in very handy when dealing with public health in Philadelphia," she said.
Though her job in Africa was mainly administrative, she also did clinical work when the nurses or doctors had problems with more challenging medical cases, she said.
Godley, a Detroit native, first worked in Philadelphia two decades ago as a field epidemiologist, based in the city's Public Health Department, for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She practiced gastroenterology in West Philadelphia for 11 years. Godley, who has a master's in public health, served on the board of the city's Public Health Department from 1995 to 1999 and was the medical director for a health maintenance organization for two years.
"She understands both personal health-care issues from the perspective of a physician and, equally importantly, she understands community health-care issues," Domzalski said. "Her previous work also gives her added perspective in needing to innovate and develop health-care systems to respond to health-care needs of a diverse population."
