Deputy Secretary for Health and Deputy State Health Officer for CMS: Celeste M. Philip, MD, MPH

Biography information about Celeste M. Philip, MD, MPH, Deputy Secretary for Health and Deputy State Health Officer for CMS

Dr. Celeste Philip is serving as the Interim Deputy Secretary for Health and Deputy State Health Officer for Children's Medical Services (CMS), Florida Department of Health (DOH). Dr. Philip, who is board certified in Family Medicine as well as Preventive Medicine and Public Health, brings well over a decade of academic excellence and professional experience with her.

Dr. Philip has served as interim director for DOH in Volusia, Calhoun and Liberty counties, and as interim bureau chief for the DOH Bureau of Communicable Diseases. In addition, she was medical director for DOH in Polk County. While in Lakeland, she chaired the Polk Health Care Alliance Infrastructure Committee and served on the board of the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine, through which she provided primary care to uninsured patients. She is currently a board member of the Early Learning Coalition of Flagler and Volusia and a steering committee member of the Department of Juvenile Justice Circuit 7 Disproportionate Minority Contact Initiative.

Dr. Philip's contributions to public health are not just limited to Florida. She is also a board member of the American Heart Association's six-state Greater Southeast Affiliate (GSA) and chair of GSA's Health Equities Committee. Dr. Philip served at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer where her research focused on sugar-sweetened beverages in schools, national breastfeeding and obesity trends and infant mortality in Mississippi. She also oversaw maternal and child anemia projects in the Philippines and Niger, as well as a nutrition surveillance system in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Philip graduated from Howard University in Washington DC magna cum laude, with a Bachelor's Degree in English and Spanish. She later received a Master of Public Health in maternal and child health and a Doctor of Medicine from Loma Linda University in California. She completed her residency at Florida Hospital in Orlando and has remained committed to improving health in Florida throughout her career.