Research Interests
Firearms & Violence Prevention, Healthcare Delivery, Mental Health, Policy, Public Health, Race, Equity & Identity, Workforce Development
Bio
Anthony L-T Chen, MD, MPH, is a dynamic, effective, visionary leader who is deeply committed to comprehensive, community-oriented care; health equity; and a vision of healthy people in healthy communities.
As a family physician, he practiced for 18 years in urban underserved and immigrant populations. He provided care across the life span—from pregnancy to the end of life—through office and home visits, partnership with community service providers, and community health interventions. Over time, he transitioned to health care management and then population and public health. He opened and transformed several community health clinics. For 15 years, he led the second largest health department in Washington, including through the two global pandemics of H1N1 and COVID-19.
He integrated physical and behavioral health in his practice and policy roles, deployed community and population-level strategies, and advocated for transformation. He currently is Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Western State Hospital (Washington) Civil Center of Excellence.
His awards include: Northwest Asian Weekly Community Health Excellence Award; Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Leadership Award in Public Health Practice; Washington State Public Health Association Lifetime Achievement Award; National Association of City & County Health Officials National Advocate of the Year; Washington State Medical Association Grassroots Advocate; Pierce County Medical Society Community Service Award; Washington Association of School Administrators Community Leadership Award; Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Washington State Cynthia F Shurtleff Leadership Award; and a Key to the City of Tacoma.
A University of Michigan graduate, he completed medical training at Duke University and family medicine residency at University of Cincinnati. He also completed a faculty development fellowship at Duke University, fellowship in minority health policy at Harvard University, and MPH at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Education
MD Medicine (MD), Duke University, 1986
MPH Health Management, Harvard University, 2006
BS Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Xpress Gen, University of Michigan, 1982