Leadership

Director: Dr. Theresa Tran

Serving as the Director for the Houston Health Department, Dr. Tran is actively involved in public health issues at the local, state and national level. She joined the City of Houston as the director of HHD in August of 2025.

Health Authority: Dr. David Persse, MD

Serving as the Chief Medical Officer for the City of Houston, Dr. Persse's career in medicine started with ten years experience as a field paramedic and paramedic instructor in upstate New York and New Jersey.

After receiving his pre-med training at Columbia University in New York, he then attended Georgetown University School of Medicine. Graduating with honors in emergency medicine from Georgetown, he then completed residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.

Photo of Dr. David Persse, Chief Medical Officer for the City of Houston

Chief of Medical Services: Dr. Janeana White, MD

Dr. Janeana White serves as the Chief of Medical Services for the Houston Health Department. Dr. White promotes public health practices, value-added hazard analysis and risk assessments to ensure that the health and social well-being of the community is fulfilled. She is an active clinician, teacher, mentor and patient advocate who finds fulfillment in caring for communities and values informed care with shared decision-making.

Dr. White received her pre-med and medical training at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan before completing her internship and residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) in Houston. At UTHSC, she served as a Pediatric Chief Resident and completed a primary care fellowship that focused on public health practices in pediatrics.

Dr. White serves on several boards, committees and professional organizations. She is a Milbank Memorial Fund's Emerging Leader, promoting a health equity lens to improve population health to legislative and executive branch government officials, and a Homeland Security Executive Leadership Program graduate from the Naval Postgraduate School.
 

Janeana White, MD.