Colin Powell School
Former NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, recently shared his reflections on health, medicine, public service, and joining CCNY as the inaugural Sternberg Family Professor of Leadership at the Colin Powell School.
Please share something about your personal and professional background. What inspired you to become a doctor?
I was not one of those kids who had a Fisher-Price stethoscope and always dreamed of becoming a physician. In fact, as the first doctor in my family, I didn't really have role models to help me understand what it meant to practice medicine. What I did have was a number of personal and family experiences with illness that showed me how health and opportunity were fundamentally connected. I've always tried to hold on to that notion of health (beyond medicine) as my professional 'north star' — whether taking care of patients at Bellevue Hospital, or trying to change broader systems of care.
Teaching at an undergraduate institution is a new venture for you. Can you say a bit about what drew you to CCNY and the Colin Powell School?
In a word: the people! I reconnected with Dean Andy Rich soon after stepping down as New York City's health commissioner — and was so inspired by how he described the mission of the Colin Powell School and CCNY as a place to forge the leaders we need for the world we ought to have. Teaching at a public institution, and getting the chance to help steward that mission, feels like an extension of the public service I've dedicated my career to.
Share something about your plans — regarding research, teaching, engagement — for the next couple of years?
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a seismic event that resulted in unfathomable loss and human suffering, our times call for bold change. If the pandemic were an earthquake, we must examine the tectonic plates underlying that suffering — poverty, racism, tribalism, and the lack of trust, social cohesion, and human connection across communities. We require fresh approaches and different ways of organizing groups for purpose, particularly groups of people spanning different lived experiences and generational boundaries. I'm looking forward to working with students and colleagues on this through teaching, scholarship, and real-world organizing. Some examples include: a course I am teaching on leadership in health equity; an essay I wrote on healthspan; and a new initiative known as the Common Health Coalition to pursue a reimagined health system.
What would you want to make sure everyone knows about what makes the Colin Powell School special?
Well, the truth is that I'm still getting to know the Colin Powell School myself! But what has struck me already is that it is an institution that "walks the walk" when it comes to social mobility and making real the American Dream. The same reason I care so much about health — because it is fundamental to opportunity — is what sets apart the educational approach at CPS and City College.
Former NYC Health Commissioner Joins CCNY Faculty – Dr. Dave A Chokshi