Marla J. Gold, MD, is Dean Emerita and Professor of Health Management and Policy at the Drexel University. Dr. Gold has dedicated her career to understanding and creating integrated systems of health care delivery, issues of public health infrastructure and health administration and leadership. In the early 1990s, she served as Philadelphia’s Assistant Health Commissioner for Infectious Disease Control in the Public Health Department, 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, as the regional grantee for the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act and had oversight for all activities pertaining to prevention and control of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. During her tenure in the Philadelphia Health Department, she worked to establish a system of HIV care for under and uninsured Philadelphians at the City’s district health centers and addressed challenging programs including needle exchange and the availability of condoms as part of a comprehensive health education in Philadelphia High Schools.
She has extensive experience working with diverse leaders in health care, government (local, state and federal levels), social services, community-based organizations and neighborhoods in designing and implementing such programs as region-wide comprehensive HIV care. In 1996, she created a multi-site HIV Care program which later grew to be known as the Partnership Comprehensive Care Practice. Today the Partnership is one of the largest regional comprehensive HIV programs, providing an array of social and clinical services to men and women with HIV/AIDS. 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.
Dr. Gold assumed the Deanship of the Drexel University School of Public Health in 2002. Under her leadership, the School grew markedly in enrollment, increased its degree offerings and greatly increased its research portfolio, becoming an authority on public health in the region. The School has a longstanding commitment to issues of health equity and a growing education, research and practice focus on the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities. Dr. Gold has published in the area of HIV policy, treatment and prevention and lectured extensively on an array of related topics to diverse audiences. Dr. Gold has been a member of the Philadelphia Board of Health over two Mayoral administrations. Currently she serves on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Advisory Committee for “Healthy Philadelphia” – interventions designed to reduce obesity, diabetes and smoking among the region’s population.
Among her honors are the US Public Service Assistant Secretary of Health Award for outstanding service to persons with HIV/AIDS, the Sisterhood award from the National Commission of Christians and Jews, and Health Care Provider of the Year in Pennsylvania from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She has been listed as a “top doctor” for women with HIV/AIDS, in Philadelphia Magazine. In November, 2007, she was among the recipients of the “Women of Distinction” awards from the Philadelphia Business Journal for her life work in medicine and public health and in 2012 Women E-News honored her for her leadership in designing comprehensive health services for women with HIV.
She received her BS from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, and an MD from University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey. She completed her internal medicine residency and infectious disease fellowship at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She attended the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) for senior women in medicine in 1997 and more recently in the Executive Leadership/Management Course at the Harvard School of Graduate Education.