Sonia Angell, MD, MPH

Sonia Angell, MD, MPH is a physician and expert in public health policy, program, and systems change. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, and is former director of the California Department of Public Health and State Public Health Officer (2019-2020). Dr. Angell was at the helm as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and entered the state of 40 million people. She helped to spearhead the nation’s first state “stay-at-home” order, and she was critical in the design and implementation of the California’s “dimmer switch” approach to reopening the state by introducing locally targeted policies, guided by data on virus spread.

Dr. Angell has over 15 years’ experience in government and management at the local, state, federal and global level. She is a former Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (2014-2019) and was a senior advisor on Global Noncommunicable Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (2011-2014). Before that, she was founding director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control Program at the NYC DOHMH (2004-2011).

Dr. Angell is board certified in internal medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of California San Francisco and completed Internal Medicine residency at Brigham Women's Hospital. She has a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Michigan. She is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Angell is a Fellow of the second class of the Aspen Institute Health Innovators Program and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She received the American Heart Association Chairman’s Award in 2020.