M. Monica Sweeney, M.D. Chairperson

M. Monica Sweeney, M.D., MPH, FACP serves as vice dean for global engagement and clinical professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. In these positions, Dr. Sweeney provides leadership for the School of Public Health’s many globally-engaged teaching, service, and research activities both locally and internationally. As chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, she leads a department whose student enrollment is among the largest in the School’s five Master of Public Health degree tracks. Dr. Sweeney brings to her positions a comprehensive and sensitive understanding of the population health challenges present in Brooklyn and elsewhere. She has dedicated many years to addressing these challenges, and to achieving health equity and improving health care access for those who are disadvantaged.

Previously Dr. Sweeney was the assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where she led the Department’s HIV/AIDS prevention and control efforts for several years. Prior to that time, she served as medical director and vice president for medical affairs at the Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center in Brooklyn, a federally qualified community health center. Dr. Sweeney is the immediate past chair of the SUNY Downstate Council, and served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) where she collaborated on new initiatives to control the disease globally, and as president of the Medical Society of the County of Kings. She has been a member of the board of directors of several prominent organizations, and has served as co-chair of the Physician Advisory Council of the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute, and as president of the Clinical Directors Network.

Dr. Sweeney received her medical degree from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree in health services management from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She completed her residency training in internal medicine at Kings County Hospital Center/Downstate Medical Center, and is boarded in internal medicine.

Dr. Sweeney has served as a member of the faculty of the School of Public Health for several years and, prior to the school’s establishment, as a faculty member of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. She has also served as a member of the faculty of Downstate’s Department of Medicine, and as member of the faculty of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Dr. Sweeney is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Award for Service in Health & Health Education for Black Women of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Public Health Advocate Award from the Public Health Association of New York City, and the Leadership in Urban Medicine Award of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. She joined the Board of RCHN CHF in 2015.