Dr. Sarah Moyer, Director of Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness
As the Director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW), Dr. Sarah Moyer believes engaging all parts of the community to implement bold, innovative ideas will lead to improved health outcomes for everyone.
She leads a team of 275 employees at LMPHW where values such as quality, innovation, collaboration, integrity and grit are championed and the department’s vision of creating a healthy Louisville where everyone and every community thrives is shared by all.
Dr. Moyer is an Associate Professor at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences where she helps educate and inspire the next generation of public health leaders and professionals. She is a board-certified family physician.
Dr. Moyer is a well-respected and much sought-after leader in public health. She’s a convener who has brought together hundreds of partners across all sectors of the community to ensure the city’s COVID-19 response provided testing, safe isolation and quarantine locations, essential needs and vaccines to all residents of the community, but particularly those most likely to bear a greater burden of disease and death. Dr. Moyer oversaw the investment of $23M of CARES Act funding and over $11M of American Rescue Plan funding during the Covid-19 response and her leadership ensured that Louisville saw fewer health inequities than comparable cities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Moyer also convened community partners to reduce infant mortality rates, establish Kentucky’s first syringe services program, and pass a comprehensive smoke-free tobacco ordinance.
Dr. Moyer implemented a transformational modernization of the department, led the department in achieving national accreditation and established LMPHW as an Academic Health Department.
Under Dr. Moyer’s leadership, LMPHW conducted several Health Impact Assessments which positively impacted health policy including implementing paid family leave for local government employees, protecting pregnant worker’s health, increasing access to expungement and increasing childcare assistance program funding. She also oversaw the department’s publication of Healthy Louisville 2025, a five-year plan and roadmap to a healthier community.
In 2022, the American Heart Association presented Dr. Moyer with the Live Fierce. Stand for All award in honor of her work to create meaningful change and positively impact equitable health throughout Kentucky. In 2020, Louisville earned a Gold medal from CityHealth as a result of policies championed by Dr. Moyer and LMPHW was included in the American Public Health Association’s Thought Leaders Film Series. Dr Moyer was named one of the 40 Under 40 national leaders in public health by the de Beaumont Foundation in 2019. In 2018, she was the recipient of the MediStar Healthcare Advocacy Award and the Kentucky Public Health Association’s Trailblazer award.
Dr. Moyer earned a Doctor of Medicine from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and received the Temple Alumni Award in 2020. She completed her Family Medicine Residency at the Wake Forest School of Medicine and earned a Master’s in Public Health with honors from Dartmouth. She earned her undergraduate degree from Colorado College.
She is married to Dr. Jed Moyer, a pediatric orthopedic physician with Norton Healthcare. In her free time, she loves spending time with her husband and their four children, playing in nature and exploring Louisville’s amazing parks and playgrounds.
See Dr. Moyer's full curriculum vitae.
Read how LMPHW and other organizations are collaborating to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone living in Louisville.
Dr. Moyer in the News
- Mayor Fischer declares 'Day of Remembrance for COVID-19 victims as Louisville 'now in the green' (March 15, 2022)
- Physician Spotlight: Dr. Sarah Moyer
- Dr. Sarah Moyer named 2021 Communicator of the Year
- Coming off Labor Day weekend, Louisville officials urging those to get tested for COVID-19 (Sept. 7, 2021)
- Health director: 'We're losing the future of Louisville' as younger people die from COVID (Sept. 7, 2021)
- Louisville Metro Council Votes Down Cigar Bar Legalization (Aug. 12, 2021)
- Louisville health official: Coronavirus cases climbing at 'alarming rate' (Oct. 1, 2020)
- Dr. Sarah Moyer, Louisville's health chief, is leading city's battle against coronavirus (May 21, 2020)
- See recordings of Dr. Moyer and Mayor Fischer's updates about COVID-19
- Louisville has released its next 5-year health plan. And it wants your input. (View the press conference of the release of Healthy Louisville 2025.)
- Drs. Jed and Sarah Moyer: Balancing Work and Children, published in Louisville Medicine magazine, Marriage and Medicine feature, (February 2020)
- PBS NewsHour: Ambitious Louisville study seeks to understand impact of trees on our health (Dec. 12, 2019)
- Business First Louisville Health Care Table of Experts: Experts weigh in on the successes, challenges of health care in Louisville. (Nov. 22, 2019)
- Metro Public Health and Wellness receives federal grant to provide mental health services to Healthy Start families (Nov. 12, 2019)
- 'Vaping is not safe': Louisville officials warn youth to quit e-cigarettes amid epidemic (Sept. 30, 2019)
- Kentucky is improving birth outcomes and kids' health with the new Pregnant Workers Act (June 27, 2019)
- Dr. Sarah Moyer recognized as a national leader in public health by the de Beaumont Foundation (May 15, 2019)
Dr. Moyer - Recent Speeches, Presentations, Articles
- Severe Lung Injury Linked to E-cigarette Use, Louisville Medicine, Dec. 2019, Dr. Sarah Moyer, Dr. Lori Caloia
- Louisville's Syringe Exchange - Preventing HIV Transmission while Pointing to Recovery (guest blog post for the Kentuckiana Health Collaborative) (Dec. 12, 2019)
- Vaping is Not Safe
- Skydiving and Public Health 3.0
- Violence is a Public Health Issue, February, 2019
