Palak Raval-Nelson is a seasoned public health professional with over 26 years of experience as a civil servant. She has been working in the field since 1996, starting her career as a public health sanitarian and advancing through various roles such as supervisor, manager, administrator, and director of Environmental Health Services. Currently, she serves as Deputy Health Commissioner for the Department of Public Health, where she oversees Environmental Health Services, Air Management Services, Public Health Laboratory, and the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office.
In addition to her work at the Department of Public Health, Raval-Nelson also teaches courses on environmental and occupational health at Drexel University’s School of Public Health and Temple University. She has presented papers at NEHA, PPHA, and APHA conferences and has publications in the National Journal of Environmental Health. In 2008, she authored her first book Breast Cancer Politics: An Evaluation of Current Funding Policies. Raval-Nelson is a graduate from MCP Hahnemann University with an M.P.H., where she received the distinguished Hiega Society Award; she also holds a Ph.D. in environmental health and policy from Drexel University.
Raval-Nelson is deeply committed to working with vulnerable populations and advocating for marginalized communities in her work towards equity and environmental justice. As an adjunct faculty member at two top universities in Philadelphia area and being recognized by Society of Women Environmental Professionals in 2006 as an outstanding woman environmental professional for the Delaware Valley attests to her dedication to this cause
