Thomas Farley (physician)

Thomas A. "Tom" Farley is an American pediatrician who served as Commissioner of Health of the City of New York and Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Health.

Early life and education

The sixth of eight children of a patent lawyer father and full-time parent mother, Farley grew up in Westfield, New Jersey. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Haverford College in 1977, and later received his MD and MPH degrees from Tulane University.

Career

From 1989 to 2000, he worked for the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemic Intelligence Service and the Louisiana Office of Public Health. During the decade prior to 2009, he was the chair of Tulane's department of community health sciences. From May 2009 until January 2014, Farley was the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. While he held this position, he promoted multiple public health policies in New York City, including banning smoking in the city's parks and beaches, raising the tobacco purchasing age to 21, and oversaw the coordination of the National Salt Reduction Initiative. He also led the effort to enact the Sugary Drinks Portion Cap Rule. During part of 2014, he served as the Joan H. Tisch Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy at Hunter College. He served as the CEO of the nonprofit organization Public Good Projects.