AUGUST 2023

Interim Health Officer Appointed

Dr. Karen Smith has been appointed as interim public health chief for Sonoma County until a permanent replacement is appointed.  Dr. Smith has run a public health lab in Marrakesh, led public health teams in Santa Clara and Napa counties and has been the Public Health Chief for California.  Dr. Smith completed her internal medicine residency and an infectious disease fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Smith has also been California’s Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department of Public Health.                                                                                               Dr. Smith is committed to maintaining a “core infrastructure that isn’t dependent on a disease du jour-stream of funding,” She stated that public health staff, such as epidemiologists shouldn’t be waiting around for the next pandemic.  “You have to train those people, but then you have to employ them and you have to keep them employed in the system.  “We lose a lot of expertise every time these surges in funding go away.