How can Philadelphia persuade all its residents to get vaccinated? Is the city prepared for a winter surge? How is COVID-19 affecting the opioid crisis? These questions and many others fall at the feet of Cheryl Bettigole, Acting Health Commissioner at the Department of Public Health, who took the helm in May following the sudden departure of Tom Farley. A board-certified family physician, Bettigole previously served as the department's Director of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention and as a member of its COVID-19 pandemic team. For more than 12 years, she served patients in public health centers, including as Chief Medical Officer of a federally qualified health center in New Jersey, and Clinical Director of Philadelphia's Health Center No. 10. She was President of the National Physicians Alliance (now part of Doctors for America) in 2012/2013, where she helped build a task force on gun-violence prevention and advocated for access to quality, affordable healthcare for all.