Marla J. Gold, MD, senior vice provost of community health and chief wellness officer at Drexel University, has been named the 2022-2023 recipient of the WMC/MCP Phyllis Marciano, MD, WMC '60, Woman in Medicine Award. She will be honored with the award during the WIMSC Leadership Summit on February 10.
The Marciano Award is given annually to a female physician scientist or staff member in recognition of her leadership, teaching of students, care of patients and status as a role model for women in medicine. The award is named after Phyllis Marciano, MD, a noted pediatrician, ardent proponent of women in medicine, and a former WMC/MCP Trust Fund trustee. At the time of Marciano's death in 2003, she was intended to be the recipient of the Woman in Medicine Award. The award was presented to her posthumously and renamed in her memory.
Dr. Gold is an inspiring physician leader who makes a tangible difference in the lives of countless others through work with philanthropy, government, educational institutions, business leaders, non-profits and individuals to leverage opportunities and achieve optimal outcomes.In her role as senior vice provost and chief wellness officer, she oversees University population health and wellness including COVID-19 operations and campus wellness. Gold is dean emerita of the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health and a tenured professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.
Gold served as assistant health commissioner for infectious disease control in Philadelphia's Public Health Department, where she where she was responsible for all reportable and communicable diseases and conditions in Philadelphia. In that role she served as director for the city immunization program and as the regional grantee for the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. She oversaw all grant-making related to CARE Act funding in the region. During her tenure in the Philadelphia Health Department, she worked to establish a comprehensive system of HIV care for under- and uninsured Philadelphians at the City’s ambulatory health centers and addressed challenging programs and issues including the availability of needle exchange programs in the city and comprehensive sexual health education in Philadelphia high schools.
In 1996, she created and led an innovative, interdisciplinary integrated clinical practice for persons with HIV/AIDS, containing a full complement of linked services. Today the Partnership Comprehensive Care Practice is one of the largest regional comprehensive HIV programs and recently celebrated its 26th anniversary. She served as chief of the Division of HIV/AIDS Medicine and vice chair of the Department of Medicine at the former MCP-Hahnemann Medical School, a predecessor of Drexel University College of Medicine.
Gold assumed the deanship of the Drexel University School of Public Health in 2002. Under her leadership, the school became established as the first highly ranked, fully accredited school of public health in the greater Philadelphia region. The school has a longstanding commitment to issues of health equity and an education, research and practice focus on the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities. She believes deeply in the importance that academic enterprises serve the region in which “they live.” She continues her commitment to improving the lives of Philadelphians directly and through collaborative work with faculty, students, staff, administration and residents of Drexel’s surrounding neighborhoods. The school established an Autism Research Institute, the only such place in the nation where autism is studied through the lens of public health. A Center for Hunger Free Communities addresses the connectedness of poverty and hunger and works toward policy solutions, and a Center for Violence Prevention and Social Justice addresses the need for trauma-informed approaches to victims of violence.
Through her leadership, Dr. Gold has trained, advised and graduated hundreds of social service, public health and medical professionals, many of whom have kept their roots in the region. She has taught public health leadership, service delivery and advocacy to public health graduate and doctoral students and devotes time to numerous community organizations and issues in the region.
Read Marla Gold's Full Bio
For her history of service to Drexel, to the field of public health, and to the Philadelphia region, as well as for her tireless dedication to advancing the next generation of medical and public health providers, Marla Gold, MD, is a most deserving recipient of the 2022-2023 Phyllis Marciano, MD '60, Woman in Medicine Award.