Who We Are

Christopher Lindsay

Chief Operating Officer

R. Christopher Lindsay began his appointment as the Chief Operating Officer of the Virginia Department of Health on November 14, 2022. A life-long Virginian, Christopher grew up in New Kent County and received undergraduate degrees from both Hampden-Sydney (Economics) and VCU (Health Sciences) before receiving his Master’s Degree from VCU in Business Administration. Additionally he graduated from the Political Leaders Program at the Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership at UVA.

Christopher began his career in Healthcare Administration as the Director of EMS Relations for HCA Virginia Health System before joining Henrico Doctors’ Hospitals as an Associate Administrator working specifically with the Emergency and Trauma Service lines. In 2017 he was appointed to the Ethics and Compliance Officer role where he led efforts across the four-campus Henrico Doctors’ system to drive regulatory enforcement and institute ethical initiatives for physicians and staff. In 2018 he took on the additional role of Administrator for key operational departments of the Retreat Doctors’ Hospital campus.

Christopher has been an active EMS provider in Henrico County since 2009 with Tuckahoe Volunteer Rescue Squad, first as an EMT Basic, becoming an ALS Intermediate provider in 2013. He and his wife Dr. Angie Lindsay (Creditt), an Emergency physician, live in Richmond.

John Ringer

Chief Financial Officer

John Ringer serves as the Chief Financial Officer for the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). In this role he leads all agency functions related to strategic financial planning, general accounting, financial reporting and statements, internal controls, budget development and management, federal grants management, procurement of goods and services, facilities coordination, and other agency financial-related administrative operations

John first joined VDH as the Director of Public Health Planning and Evaluation in the Office of the Commissioner in 2016. He led the effort for VDH to become accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board starting in 2016, with full accreditation awarded to VDH in May 2021.

Prior to joining VDH, John worked at the Department of Planning and Budget for sixteen years, as a Senior Analyst and then as Associate Director.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Auburn University and a Master of Arts in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.

Suresh Soundararajan

Chief Information Officer

Suresh Soundararajan is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for VDH and provides oversight to the Offices of Vital Records (OVR), Information Management (OIM) and the Center for Public Health Informatics (CPHI). As a CIO, Suresh provides Strategic Vision, planning and guidance to the agency leadership and ensures the oversight offices leverages Technology, Data and Security to deliver outcomes that support VDH goals.

Suresh has been in this position since Nov 2019 and as Acting CIO between June and November 2019. He has been with VDH for over 15 years and acted in different roles. He has won Agency Star awards in 2010 and 2017 and was recognized as a VDH Public Health Hero in 2011. He has consulted for both Government and Private Sector clients before that. He is described in general as an innovative and inspirational leader maximizing team’s performance through empowering and supporting inventive ideas from conception to implementation, focusing on service delivery using strategic and cost-effective technology and data solutions goals.

Suresh led efforts to implement a variety of innovative and collaborative solutions to address COVID-19 pandemic containment and vaccination efforts and was awarded Govtech’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2022, and his teams won Government Project Experience award for 2022. Most recently, Suresh won the Public Sector Network’s Top 50 Global innovation leaders of 2024. He was also a recipient of other Governor’s Technology Awards through the years. He is also a frequent speaker and strategic advisor on Public Sector/Government Innovations and on CIO Forums.

Laurie Forlano, DO, MPH

State Epidemiologist

Dr. Laurie Forlano serves as the State Epidemiologist and Director of the Office of Epidemiology. She provides leadership for communicable disease prevention and control, the Center for Community Health Improvement, and the Advisory Committee for VDH Epidemiology.

Dr. Forlano’s previous roles at the Virginia Department of Health include Deputy Director of the Office of Epidemiology, State Epidemiologist and Deputy Commissioner of Population Health at the Virginia Department of Health. Prior to joining VDH in 2011, she also held positions in local and state public health in New Hampshire and Vermont. She received her medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the University of Massachusetts. After 2 years of clinical training in family medicine, she completed residency training in Preventive Medicine/Public Health at the University of Massachusetts, and is Board Certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Forlano has provided leadership to several complex, large scale infectious disease responses and has served in leadership roles on interagency strategic initiatives throughout her tenure with VDH. She is a graduate of the Commonwealth Management Institute and the Virginia Executive Institute.

She lives in Richmond City with her husband and two daughters.

Chief Deputy Commissioner for Community Health Services

Effective January 25, 2024, Susan Fischer Davis, M.D., began serving as the VDH Chief Deputy Commissioner for Community Health Services.  Dr. Fischer Davis has worked in public health at the local, state, and federal level.  For the past 6 years she worked at the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services and led the Investigation Branch during New Hampshire’s COVID response.  From 1997 through 2017, Dr. Fischer Davis worked at VDH and served as the Deputy State Epidemiologist and the Director of the Henrico Health District. Dr. Fischer Davis worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer in immunizable diseases, a preventive medicine resident, a medical epidemiologist in HIV/AIDS, and as an Associate Editor for the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Series. Dr. Fischer Davis attended Dartmouth Medical School and completed an internship in internal medicine at a Tufts University teaching hospital.  Dr. Fischer Davis and her husband have three grown daughters and a golden retriever, Abe, who gets them up and out every day for a morning walk or jog.

Deputy Commissioner for Governmental and Regulatory Affairs

Joe Hillbert, MPA, has been the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Deputy Commissioner for  Governmental and Regulatory Affairs since August 2018.  In this capacity, he assists and advises the Commissioner on a wide range of policy, operational, legislative and regulatory issues.  Joe also serves as VDH’s legislative liaison during the General Assembly Session, and works closely with staff in the Governor’s Office, Secretary’s Office, other Executive Branch agencies, and the legislative branch.  He is also responsible for the Office of Licensure and Certification and the Office of Communications, including the agency’s FOIA response function. He is also responsible for regulatory coordination, administration of the State Board of Health, constituent mail response, and the VDH Institutional Review Board.

Prior to coming to VDH in 2002, Joe served as a Senior Health Policy Analyst at the Joint Commission on Health Care for three years, where he researched and reported on a number of health care-related issues for the General Assembly.  Prior to that, Joe served as a legislative analyst for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission for eight years.  In that role, he conducted a number of policy analyses and program evaluations concerning several different state agencies and programs.  Joe has a B.A in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany, and an M.P.A. from New York University.  He is a graduate of the Virginia Executive Institute.

Deputy Commissioner for Population Health and Preparedness

Stephanie Dunkel, Deputy Commissioner of Population Health and Emergency Preparedness, comes to the Virginia Department of Health from the Washington State Department of Health where she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Prevention and Community Health, providing operational leadership to programs and state services.

Prior to joining the Washington State Department of Health, she served in various positions at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, ultimately serving as the Assistant Division Director of the Communicable Disease Control Division. Previous positions included periods as Director of the Pierce County Medical Reserve Corps and the Exercise and Training Manager, Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response for the department.

Before joining the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, she was a Child Health Consultant with the Washington State Department of Health, working across communities to address maternal and infant health disparities. She also served as a Public Health Associate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, assigned in Washington.

Stephanie received her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Iowa, and her Master of Business Administration, specializing in Health Care Administration/Management from Southern New Hampshire University. She and her husband Matt enjoy the beach, spending time with family, two dogs and horse.