HPD Commencement Program - 2017

19 D istinguished H onoree C ommencement S peaker for M orning C eremony Celeste Philip , M.D., is the Florida Surgeon General and secretary of the State Department of Health. Appointed surgeon general by Florida Governor Rick Scott in May 2016, Philip is board certified in family medicine, public health, and general preventive medicine and has a record of academic excellence and professional experience. Philip joined the State Department of Health in 2008. She has served in numerous capacities, including deputy secretary for health and deputy state health officer at the department’s Children’s Medical Services. She previously served as the department’s assistant director for public health, as the medical director, and as the interim director for three county health departments. Philip began her career with the Department of Health in Polk County, where she was the medical director, served on the board of Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine, and provided primary care to uninsured patients. Philip was named the 2016 Outstanding Public Health Woman of the Year by the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health. She is a board member of Florida Healthy Kids Corporation and serves as president of the American Heart Association six-state Greater Southeast Affiliate. She formerly served as a preventive medicine resident at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Philip graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature. She has a Master of Public Health degree in Maternal and Child Health and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California. She completed her residency in family medicine at Florida Hospital in Orlando.