Mailman’s El-Sayed Takes Health Reins in Detroit

Mike Duggan, the Mayor of the City of Detroit, has chosen Abdul El-Sayed, assistant professor of Epidemiology, to be Executive Director of Public Health, the city’s top health post. Starting on August 25, El-Sayed will oversee the health department and health-related initiatives.

In his new role, El-Sayed will address many of the major population health issues familiar to the Mailman School community, including obesity and infant mortality, trading research analysis for community intervention On both health issues, Detroit scores among the lowest in the nation. El-Sayed also looks forward to building on efforts by the city around immunization, maternal-child health, and HIV-AIDS, as well as working to reduce violence through programs to build community cohesion like the Police Athletic League where young men and women bond over sports. Harnessing community good will is critical, says El-Sayed, pointing to efforts to build bike lanes and turn blighted homes into urban farms. “If we’re successful in Detroit, it’s because we’re able to support the hard work of the community and to make sure those efforts are attracting the kind of attention and funding they deserve.”

A member of the Mailman Epidemiology faculty since 2014, El-Sayed has directed the School’s GRAPH (Global Research Analytics for Population Health) program and conducted research into the links between poverty and social marginalization and outcomes like obesity and infant mortality. El-Sayed, age 30, holds a medical degree from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons where he was a Soros Fellow and a DPhil in population health from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. During his time at Mailman he was outspoken in the media on public health topics from Ebola, childhood vaccination, and gun violence. 

El-Sayed, whose father emigrated from Alexandria, Egypt, in 1978, saw many changes growing up in metro-Detroit as the city’s population dwindled and houses were abandoned, culminating in the 2013 bankruptcy. But in recent years, Motor City has roared back to life. “With Mayor [Mike] Duggan’s leadership we’ve seen an upswing and that’s really exciting,” he says. “People are moving back, myself included. Now is an amazing time to go home and do something good with my fellow Detroiters.”

In a farewell message, El-Sayed thanked Mailman colleagues, writing, “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve on the faculty at Columbia among such thoughtful, committed, and engaged faculty, trainees, and staff.” He assured them he would continue to draw on their “collective insights, energies and talents,” adding, “I hope you won’t mind an email to that end from time to time.”