Marla J. Gold, MD

Dr. Marla J. Gold is the Dean of Drexel University’s School of Public Health, and a Professor of Health Management and Policy. She completed an internal medicine residency and infectious disease fellowship at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She previously 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. Among her responsibilities, she represented the City of Philadelphia as the grantee for Ryan White CARE Act awards, CDC Cooperative Agreements for HIV, TB, and STD, and directed the design of a delivery system of HIV care among Philadelphia’s eight public health centers. She directed the immunization program for the City. She also designed and established the largest comprehensive HIV/AIDS care program in the Greater Philadelphia Region know as The Partnership. Dr. Gold has extensive national experience working with community-based organizations, community leaders and coalitions on a wide range of public health issues.

She served as Chief of the Division of HIV/AIDS Medicine at MCP Hahnemann University and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine. She assumed the deanship for the Drexel School of Public Health in the summer of 2002. 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 is interested in the relationship between public health and human rights and committed to addressing this critical area throughout the education, public health practice and research arms at the School. Her own research has focused on HIV service delivery and prevention programs for women with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gold is a member of the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan advisory board as well as a member of the Philadelphia Board of Health. 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 and honored by the Mazzoni Center for her work with people with HIV/AIDS. 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.