LOUISVILLE — Mayor Craig Greenberg and Deputy Mayor for Public Health and Public Services Nicole George announced that Dr. Inder Singal will serve as executive director, and Connie Mendel will serve as chief health strategist with the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW). Both have been serving as interim directors since the mayor appointed them in May 2023.
“LMPHW is essential to creating a safer, stronger and healthier Louisville,” said Mayor Greenberg. “Connie and Inder have already had significant accomplishments in their interim roles. They led the distribution of opioid settlement funds while serving as co-chairs on the Opioid Settlement Advisory Board. Because of their work distributing naloxone and connecting people with harm reduction services, treatment, and recovery, many lives in this community have been saved.”
Greenberg also noted both Mendel and Dr. Singal were instrumental in securing funding to expand the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and the implementation of the new Lead Rental Registry ordinance.
LMPHW provides many services essential to keeping the community safe and healthy, including:
- Preventing the spread of infectious diseases
- Ensuring food served at public establishments is safe
- Preventing environmental hazards like lead poisoning that can harm our children’s growth and development
- Planning, preparing, and practicing responses for public health emergencies
- Enforcing laws like the smoke-free ordinance
- Ensuring safe practices at hotels, tattoo and body art studios, and pools
- Ensuring mothers, children and their families have access to care and healthy foods
- Protecting people from illness from insects and animals
- Connecting people to medical care and social supports, treatment, recovery, and housing
- And analyzing data that helps to address barriers to good health.
Connie Mendel has devoted her career to public service, beginning in 1997 when she joined the Jefferson County Health Department as an environmental health specialist in the Hazardous Materials Emergency Response, Food Safety, and Mosquito Control programs. She steadily ascended the ranks and prior to her appointment by Mayor Greenberg served as Senior Deputy Director where she led the department’s administrative and finance operations, regulatory operations and enforcement, emergency planning and preparedness, and the Public Health Laboratory.
“I want to thank Mayor Greenberg for the opportunity to help lead our department and Louisville Metro as chief health strategist. I began my career in public health 26 years ago and LMPHW has become my second home,” said Mendel. “My goals remain the same, and that’s to build a stronger public health workforce, while helping everyone in our city improve their health and well-being so they can reach their full human potential. We can accomplish that by keeping health equity at the center of our work and removing barriers that prevent people from achieving positive health outcomes.”
Dr. Inder Singal, a retina specialist, has been practicing in Louisville since 2003. He is passionate about finding sustainable solutions to solve inequities in healthcare, education and affordable housing.
Singal is the founder and president of Adarsh Charitable Foundation. Established in 2018, its mission is to find sustainable solutions to alleviate preventable vision impairment and work with educational institutions to help bridge the education gap among minorities. Since its inception, the foundation has financially supported local education institutions and provided scholarships to students in Belize and Guatemala. He also serves on the strategy and planning committee at the Kentucky School for the Blind Charitable Foundation.
“I look forward to working alongside Mayor Greenberg and his administration, Connie, our dedicated and compassionate team members and community partners to solve inequities in healthcare, education and affordable housing,” said Dr. Singal. “By working together and sowing seeds of positive change today, we will provide our future generations a better and more equitable tomorrow. I feel privileged and honored to be able to serve all residents of Louisville.”
For more information on LMPHW programs and services, visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/health-wellness.
