Linda Rae Murray, M.D., M.P.H. -- Biography

Dr. Linda Rae Murray is Chief Medical Officer for the Cook County Department of Public Health, an affiliate of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, one of the nation’s largest public systems of medical care.  She is a member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, an internal medicine and occupational physician, public health leader, author, professor and community activist with more than 40 years’ experience working for social justice and health care as a basic human right.   Dr. Murray has worked in a wide range of settings on behalf of underserved populations.  She began her medical career at Cook County Hospital in 1977, and has practiced medicine at private hospitals and at community health centers.  She was medical director for the non-profit Winfield Moody Health Center adjacent to the Cabrini-Green public housing development, and served as a bureau chief at the Chicago Department of Public Health.    Dr. Murray is very active in her profession, including serving as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). She is on the boards of Trinity Health (a large Catholic health system) and the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group (a research and advocacy institute focusing on poor and underserved populations).  Among the honors she has received is the Distinguished Service in the Health Field Award from the National Association of Minority Medical Educators.   Dr. Murray earned her medical degree and her master’s degree in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago.