California’s director of the Department of Public Health, Dr. Ronald W. Chapman, has focused his career on caring for the uninsured, chronic disease management and working to coordinate public health and medicine to ensure quality health services to patients. He resigned at the end of January 2015.

Chapman received a bachelor of science degree in 1983 from the University of California, Irvine before getting his masters of public health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 1985.  Chapman earned a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Southern California in 1989. 

A certified family physician, Chapman completed his residency in 1992 and received a Family Practice Academic Fellowship from the University of California, San Francisco in 1996.  Chapman served on the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.  He was the chief medical officer of Partnership HealthPlan of California, which is a managed care Medi-Cal plan.  Chapman oversaw the group’s activities in California’s Yolo, Solano, Napa and Sonoma counties. 

Chapman was appointed director of the Department of Public Health in 2011 by Governor Jerry Brown.

Biography (CDPH website)