Deputy County Executive Madiha Tariq

About Madiha Tariq

Madiha Tariq is the Deputy County Executive in charge of the Health and Human Services and the Public Services departments.

In that role, she will oversee two of the largest department in the county, with more than 1,000 employees who administer a vast array of public health services and programs and manage Children's Village, the Medical Examiner's Office, Community Corrections, the Animal Shelter and Pet Adoption Center, Neighborhood and Housing and Circuit Court Probation.

She is the first Muslim woman appointed to a leadership role in the county.

As the Public Health Director at the ACCESS Community Health and Research Center, Tariq has been at the forefront of the health issues and rights of underserved ethnic communities in southeast Michigan. She also is a member of the faculty, teaching Public Health classes at Wayne State University. Her published research focuses on equitable access to care, health disparities among vulnerable communities and mental health with a special focus on refugees, immigrants, and new Americans in Southeast Michigan.

At ACCESS, she also helped coordinate a robust response to the COVID-19 pandemic with testing and care coordination for those impacted by the virus.

Tariq, a native of Pakistan who moved to the United States when she was 16, also worked in USAID global health projects at Abt Associates and then at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Washington, DC. She received a bachelor's degree in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College in Vermont and master's degree in Public Health from George Washington University in Washington DC.

She lives in Ferndale with her husband and two children. When she's not working, she loves to travel and try all the adventurous dining options around the region.