Commissioner Dr. Arkoosh is a parent of three, physician, health policy expert, and community leader who, on January 28, 2015, was chosen unanimously by the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas to fill a vacancy on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. She was elected to a full four-year term in November 2015 and was elected unanimously as Commission Chair on November 17, 2016. Arkoosh was re-elected to the Board in November 2019, and again unanimously elected by her two colleagues to serve as Chair in January 2020.
Arkoosh is a longtime resident of Montgomery County who has been engaged in public health policy development across all levels of government. She is a nationally-recognized public health policy expert. Until recently, she was Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. She sought the Democratic nomination in 2014 for the 13th Congressional District seat.
Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Arkoosh has a degree in Economics from Northwestern University, and attended medical school at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. She moved to Philadelphia in 1986 where she performed her residency at Jefferson Medical College in Anesthesiology with a special focus on Obstetrics and began working with patients and families from every walk of life, ultimately caring for thousands of women during labor and delivery. Frustrated by watching the families she cared for fall through the cracks time and time again – Arkoosh earned a Master of Public Health with a focus in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2007 so that she could increase her impact outside of the exam room.
Her strong educational background propelled her into national prominence, and has given her a unique blend of public health, leadership, and medical expertise. Upon obtaining her Master of Public Health, she became deeply engaged in the national effort to achieve comprehensive health care reform. She led the National Physicians Alliance, a national non-profit organization of physicians, who, putting their patients before profits, joined a broad-based nation-wide coalition for reform. During this time, she developed policy and legislative strategy, and promoted public engagement in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and throughout the country. Arkoosh briefly served as Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Public Health during 2012-2013.
While much of her career has been in medicine and public health, Arkoosh has significant leadership experience managing complex organizations during times of fiscal challenge. Arkoosh served for five years as Chair of Anesthesiology at the Drexel University College of Medicine where she successfully drew upon her undergraduate training in economics to restore her department to fiscal solvency following the Allegheny University bankruptcy. During this challenging time, she also served one year as Interim Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and was actively involved in the financial oversight of the medical school clinical practice plan.
Arkoosh lives in Springfield Township of Montgomery County with her husband, Jeff Harbison, and their three children.
Dr. Diez Roux is Dean and Distinguished University Professor of Epidemiology in the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. Before joining Drexel she served on the faculties of Columbia University and the University of Michigan where she was Chair of the Department of Epidemiology. Diez Roux is internationally known for her research on the social determinants of population health, the study of how neighborhoods affect health, and urban health. Her work on neighborhood health effects has been highly influential in the policy debate on population health and its determinants. She has led large NIH and foundation funded research and training programs in the United States and in collaboration with various institutions in Latin America and is currently Principal Investigator of the Wellcome Trust funded SALURBAL (Salud Urbana en América Latina) study. Diez Roux has served on numerous editorial boards, review panels and advisory committees including most recently the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) of the Environmental Protection Agency (as Chair), the Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) of the National Center for Health Statistics, the Committee on Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment of the International Council for Science (ISCUS), and CDCs Community Preventive Services Taskforce. She has received the Wade Hampton Frost Award for her contributions to public health from the American Public Health Association and the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Epidemiology from the American College of Epidemiology. She is an elected member of the American Epidemiological Society and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. Diez Roux has been an active mentor of doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty.
After receiving her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College, Dr. Long completed pediatric residency and fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and one year in research as a National Institutes of Health trainee at Temple University. She took her first job in 1975, as Chief of Infectious Diseases at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where she has spent her career.
Long has served as Chair of the first Subspecialty Board of Pediatric Infectious Diseases of the American Board of Pediatrics, Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Pediatrics, President of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and President of the Medical Staff at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
She is the founding and current Chief Editor of the textbook Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Disease (in its 6th edition) and an Associate Editor of The Journal of Pediatrics. She also was an Associate Editor for 5 editions of the Red Book Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She has chaired the program committee for annual meetings of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Long has been honored repeatedly with medical student Golden Apples, housestaff teaching awards, the all-university Great Teacher’s Award at Temple University, the Distinguished Service Award as well as the Distinguished Physician Award of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, an award for Lifetime Contribution to Infectious Diseases Education by the Section on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Clinical Teaching Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (a primarily internist subspecialist society). In 2015, she received the Drexel University Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching and in 2019 was awarded the Drexel University College of Medicine Dean’s Heritage Medal and Phyllis Marciano, MD, Woman in Medicine Award. She has been named repeatedly as Top Doctor in Philadelphia and in America. To date, Long has mentored 16 fellows in pediatric infectious diseases, as well as more than 1000 residents and students in pediatrics. The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program included Long’s portrait, among storied St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children dignitaries Drs. W.E. Nelson and A. M. DiGeorge, on an edifice near the hospital in recognition of service to north Philadelphia’s children and contribution to the broad field of Pediatrics.
Despite national leadership and teaching roles, Long has prioritized an intensive schedule of clinical consultative care, to live the mission of bringing the best possible medical decisions to underprivileged children. She maintains that her most cherished moments are at the bedside of a child -- with a parent, medical student, resident and fellow -- all learning together.
Research and Policy: Long’s principal areas of investigation are vaccine preventable diseases and management of common infectious diseases in children. She sits on national committees that make vaccine policy for U.S. children and advises on vaccine licensure and recommendations for use. She has made more than 400 contributions to the medical literature, has given an average of over 30 lectures nationally/internationally annually for more than the past 3 decades, and has performed >85 honorary lectureships and visiting professorships.
Dr. Spector is a Professor of Pediatrics and serves in dual roles at the Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCOM): as Executive Director of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program, a parttime year long, national leadership fellowship program for women in academic medicine, dentistry, public health, and pharmacy, and as Associate Dean of Faculty Development. Known for her leadership abilities and her facilitation skills, Spector is sought after as a speaker and a visiting professor. Her contributions to graduate medical education and academic medicine are in leadership skills development, professional development, gender equity, mentoring and sponsorship, and curriculum development and implementation. She is a founding member of Time’s Up Healthcare and a member of PROWD (Promoting and Respecting Our Women Doctors). In addition to her roles at DUCOM, she has been the educational leader of the I-PASS Handoff Study Group and serves as the Chair of the I-PASS Executive Council and is a co-founder of the I-PASS Safety Institute.
Spector was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and is member of the American Pediatric Society She has received numerous awards for teaching, mentoring and innovation, including the Robert S. Holm Award for her extraordinary contribution in pediatric program director leadership and mentorship from the Association of Pediatric Program Directors, the Elias Abrutyn Mentoring Award from Drexel University College of Medicine, the Miller Sarkin Mentoring Award from the Academic Pediatric Association, the Elizabeth Bingham Award from the Association for Women in Science, Philadelphia chapter, the Women in Medicine Summit She for She Award, the American Medical Association Inspiration Award, and the Association of American Medical Colleges GWIMS Leadership Award for an Individual. The I-PASS Study group that she leads was a HBS/HMS health acceleration challenge finalist and received the Cox Award, and the I-PASS Handoff Program received the John M. Eisenberg National Patient Safety and Quality Award, Joint Commission and National Quality Forum.
In the past year she has been invited to join a number of leadership efforts at organizations including the Society of Hospital Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American College of Physicians, and WomenLift Health.