Alexander Samuel, M.D.

Dr. Alexander Samuel became the Health Director for the Chesterfield Health District in July of 2017. He joined the Virginia Department of Health soon after graduating from residency in 2010, assuming the role of Health Director of the Piedmont Health District, which covers seven rural counties in the central part of the Commonwealth. While in Piedmont, Dr. Samuel focused on health district organizational development and capacity building. He also worked to develop community collaborations that lead to the creation of an obesity prevention coalition and a successful community health assessment partnership with the local hospital system. Dr. Samuel enjoys working at the intersection of fields like public health, social science, and organizational management, using skills in community participatory learning methods, ethnographic assessment, community coalition development, and strategic planning, with the aim of integrating evidence-informed approaches into interventions that are ultimately community derived. Dr. Samuel hails from the wide-open spaces of rural south central Kansas. He obtained his MD from the University Of Kansas School Of Medicine, receiving his Pediatrics training there before entering the General Preventive Medicine and Public Health Residency Program at Johns Hopkins.