Dr. Danny Avula is the Director of the Richmond City and Henrico County Health Departments. In January 2021, Governor Northam appointed Dr. Avula to lead the Commonwealth of Virginia's unprecedented COVID-19 vaccination effort.
Dr. Avula is a public health physician specializing in pediatrics and preventive medicine, and continues to practice clinically as a pediatric hospitalist. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he earned his medical degree from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He completed residencies at VCU and Johns Hopkins University, where he also earned the Master of Public Health degree. He is an Affiliate Faculty member at VCU, where he regularly serves as an advisor and preceptor to graduate and medical students.
Governor McAuliffe appointed Dr. Avula to the State Board of Social Services in 2013, and he served as Board Chair from 2017 to 2019. He is also a former Board Chair of the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. He is a recent recipient of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Community’s Humanitarian Award, a 2019 Richmond Times-Dispatch Person of the Year honoree, and was named Style Weekly's "Richmonder of the Year" in 2020.
Dr. Avula's work has been featured nationally by the CDC, MSNBC, The New York Times, NPR, and PBS Newshour, and he can be found on the TED circuit with his TEDx talk entitled
"Dependence Isn't a Dirty Word." At home in Richmond's Church Hill neighborhood, where he has lived for the past 16 years, Dr. Avula's time is devoted to life with his wife and five kids