Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, and public servant. He serves as director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services and health officer for the county, serving 1.8 million residents of Michigan’s largest and most diverse county under Chief Executive Warren Evans. Abdul hosts Crooked Media’s award-winning “America Dissected” podcast, attracting tens of thousands of weekly listeners to go beyond the headlines to explore the intersection between health and society.
His three books include “Healing Politics,” calling for a politics of empathy to cure our epidemic of insecurity, and “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide” with Dr. Micah Johnson. Abdul is a visiting scholar at the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, teaching at the intersection of public health, public policy, and politics, and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
He is formerly a commentator at CNN, health director for the city of Detroit, and a candidate for governor of Michigan in 2018. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, and he is a sought-after media commentator and keynote speaker at international conferences, gala events, and university commencements. He’s a proud member of the National Writers Union, AFT Locals 477 and 6244, SEIU Local 500, and the AAUP.