Commissioner of Health, New York State

Howard A. Zucker, M.D., is the Commissioner of Health for New York State. As the state’s chief physician, he leads the Department of Health’s public health initiatives and oversees its healthcare workforce and healthcare facilities. He has been working with Governor Cuomo to manage New York State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has worked at the helm on such critical issues as the 2018-2019 measles outbreak, vaping-related illnesses, Legionella, the Zika virus, Ebola, and medical marijuana. Dr. Zucker trained in pediatrics (Johns Hopkins), anesthesiology (University of Pennsylvania), pediatric critical care/pediatric anesthesiology (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), and pediatric cardiology (Boston Children’s Hospital) and is board-certified in six specialties. He has held academic appointments at Yale, Columbia, and Einstein medical schools; at Georgetown Law; and on the NIH faculty. He served as a White House Fellow, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health, Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization, and Institute of Politics fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. He holds a B.S. (McGill), M.D. (George Washington), J.D. (Fordham), and LL.M. (Columbia).