A Message from Our Interim Chief Public Health Officer
Hello, Cambridge Community!
I’m Tracy Rose-Tynes, Interim Chief Public Health Officer at the Cambridge Public Health Department (CPHD). I’ve been called out of retirement to lead CPHD as it transitions to new leadership. I’m happy to be back in Cambridge and will be focused on what the department does at its core: helping create the conditions that support the health and wellbeing of everyone in the community.
Our work is varied and broad, ranging from overdose prevention and disease investigation to environmental health, nutrition and literacy. CPHD staff are in the schools providing health, oral health and screening services and engaging in programs with youth. We oversee the care of laboratory animals in the city, support emergency preparedness activities, and collect and analyze data that informs decisions across the city. CPHD employs an equity lens across all program areas to identify and address health inequities.
CPHD is a city department administered by the Cambridge Health Alliance. We work closely with Dr. Assaad Sayah, who is CEO of the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) and also the city’s Commissioner of Public Health AND with Yi-An Huang, the City Manager for the City of Cambridge. Collaboration is a hallmark of our work; CPHD has many exceptional city and nonprofit partners who work alongside us for the benefit of the people who live, learn, work, and play in Cambridge.
The department is guided by our values: collaboration; innovation; professionalism and excellence; and social justice and equity. We were recently re-accredited by PHAB, the national Public Health Accreditation Board, recognizing our excellence across the ten essential public health services. Enabling equitable access to services and programs, a CPHD priority, was identified as a particularly strong component of what we do.
I spent most of my career at CPHD, and I’m honored to be taking on the role of Interim Chief. I look forward to reconnecting with old friends and colleagues and getting to know new ones!
Yours in collaboration,
Tracy Rose-Tynes, MS, RN
A Message from Our Medical Director
Hello, I’m Dr. Linda Shipton. I have been working within the Cambridge community since 2007 when I joined the Cambridge Health Alliance as an infectious disease physician. In 2024 I expanded my role to become the Medical Director for the Cambridge Public Health Department. My work provides a bridge between clinical/medical considerations and population health, which is the health of the entire community. My role involves advising the Cambridge Public Health Department on clinical matters such as infectious disease prevention and immunization compliance. I also collaborate with our nursing staff and epidemiologists to monitor trends and make policy recommendations.
I hope that you’ll find what you are looking for on the Cambridge Public Health Department website. Our connections to the community are important to us, so please keep in touch with our work!
Warmly,
Linda Shipton, MD
Updated: April 17, 2026