After more than 17-years at the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health, Palak Raval-Nelson, PhD MPH '02, has never been content to simply sit at her desk.

After starting out as an entry-level food safety sanitarian, Dr. Raval-Nelson is now the Director of Environmental Health Services for the City of Philadelphia. She has grown through the ranks, and now helps save lives and money on a grand scale.

“I get to live every day following my life's passion, environmental public health, and I get paid for it,” she said.

Dr. Raval-Nelson is responsible for the city’s environmental engineering, vector control, childhood lead prevention and food protection programs.

She is constantly out in the field meeting challenges and finding solutions to providing safer food establishments and healthier homes. She speaks with city commissioners and council members about programs and policies, while also partnering with other city departments to improve health.

Her motto: “The cheapest solution is primary prevention whenever possible.”

According to Dr. Raval-Nelson, there are $3B in annual medical costs to treat food-borne illnesses in the U.S. She and her staff try and help food establishments follow protocols right from the start to prevent anyone from getting sick or to stop a larger outbreak. Similarly, more than 700 cases of child lead poisoning occur each year. Her aim is to eventually prevent the lead poisoning, and thereby avoid the more costly route of treating the harm caused by lead poisoning.

Born in India, Dr. Raval-Nelson considered attending medical school, but decided she “wanted to help people globally. Not one-at-a-time.”

She was encouraged early in her career to attend a class at Drexel University taught by Dr. Jonathan Mann, a renowned humanitarian and the founding dean of the SPH.

“I fell in love with the concept of public health and how the field of public health helps vulnerable populations who do not have a voice to improve their health,” said Dr. Raval-Nelson.

She then enrolled at the SPH and worked with professors Augusta Villanueva, PhD, and Rabbi Nancy Epstein, MPH, MAHL.

“The SPH taught me the value of prevention, listening and working with a community to address their health-related needs that would best make a difference in their lives,” said Dr. Raval- Nelson. “My education at Drexel prepared me to be able to meet with the public and help them to understand environmental health regulations and improve their health.”

Dr. Raval-Nelson serves as an SPH adjunct faculty member. In 2008, she published the book “Breast Cancer Politics: An Evaluation of the Current Funding Policies.” She also graduated from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute, and is a member of the Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society.