Title
Associate Commissioner
Company
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Bio
Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH is highly proficient physician with demonstrated excellence in public health, health communications/media, preventive medicine, and leadership. Currently, Dr. Maybank is an Associate Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and serves as the Director of the Center for Health Equity. The newly created Center for Health Equity aligns efforts in advancing health equity across the City and ensures the deployment of resources to reduce health and mental hygiene disparities across all neighborhoods in NYC. The Center focuses on these key areas: leveraging community assets to better integrate primary care and public health to serve the health needs of communities; building interagency collaboration to implement multi-sectorial approach to addressing the root causes of health disparities; and increasing organizational capacity that strengthens the agency’s lens of addressing health equity. Previously she led the Brooklyn District Public Health Office as Assistant Commissioner. Previous to her tenure at the NYC Health Department, Dr. Maybank successfully launched the Office of Minority Health as its Founding Director in the Suffolk County Department of Health Services in NY. Under her leadership, she addressed the alarming health inequities and barriers to health care for communities of color. She was instrumental in co-founding the Suffolk County Minority Health Action Coalition. Currently, Dr. Maybank serves as Vice President of the Empire State Medical Association, the NYS affiliate of the National Medical Association. She is also a founding board member of the Artemis Medical Society (an international mentoring, networking, and advocacy organization of over 3000 female physicians of color). In 2012, she co-founded “We Are Doc McStuffins,” a movement created by African-American female physicians who were inspired by the Disney Junior character Doc McStuffins. She is an Assistant Professor in the Masters in Public Health Program at Long Island University Brooklyn Campus teaching on topics related to health inequities, health communications, public health leadership and management, and community organizing in health. In the media and on the lecture circuit, Dr. Maybank is highly sought after. She has presented and led numerous trainings on topics related to health inequities, cultural competency, and health literacy at numerous local and national events. She has appeared or been profiled on Disney Jr.’s highly successful Doc McStuffins animated series, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry show, Good Morning America, BET’s 106 & Park, HuffPost Live, Our World with Black Enterprise, WABC Here and Now, FOX 5 NY Good Day Street Talk, WBLS Daily Dose and various other outlets. She has also advised on three film projects: the awardwinning documentary Soul Food Junkies by Byron Hurt, The Deadliest Disease in America by Crystal Emery, and The Tale of Timmy Two Chins by Luis Hernandez. For her accomplishments, she has been honored by the National Coalition of 100 Black Men, The Network Journal 40 Under 40, the Hip Hop Loves Foundation, NV Magazine’s Movers and Shakers, and For Harriet Blog as one of the nine Black Women game changers in STEM fields. In her spare time, Dr. Maybank has served on two medical mission trips to Haiti in 2010 to assist in the post-earthquake relief efforts. While there, she provided health care, conducted a public health assessment, and provided recommendations on how to improve sanitation and hygiene conditions on a tent camp of 20,000 people. Dr. Maybank holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, a MD from Temple University School of Medicine, and a MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She is a pediatrician Board Certified in Preventive Medicine/Public Health.