Dr. Kismet Baldwin-Santana, who served as deputy overall health officer through the COVID-19 pandemic, has been named interim overall health officer, replacing for now the county’s outgoing public overall health chief, Dr. Sundari Mase.
Baldwin-Santana, a pediatrics specialist with a master’s degree in public overall health, has been with the county’s public overall health division considering the fact that July 2020. Tina Rivera, the county’s overall health solutions director, mentioned Baldwin-Santana was a all-natural option to take more than as interim overall health officer though a national search is performed to fill the position.
“Kismet has been an superb leader through the pandemic, forging worthwhile relationships inside the regional overall health care neighborhood,” Rivera mentioned in a statement. “She has intimate information of the division as the deputy public overall health officer, and she was the all-natural option to take on the interim overall health officer function.”
Mase, who announced her resignation on March ten, is set to step down from her post Friday. Regional officials mentioned she has taken a job with the federal Centers for Illness Handle and Prevention.
Baldwin-Santana earned a doctoral degree in medicine from the Ohio State University College of Medicine and a master’s degree in public overall health from the University of California, Berkeley.
Just before coming to Sonoma County about the start off of the pandemic, Baldwin-Santana worked as public overall health officer for San Joaquin County. She’s also worked as a neonatologist at Elliot Hospital in New Hampshire and a quarantine health-related officer for CDC contractor Caduceus Healthcare.
The county overall health officer, which serves as the chief health-related officer and leading overall health policy official for the county, is granted authority from the state to declare public overall health emergencies, situation overall health orders and impose penalties for noncompliance.
Baldwin-Santana requires the helm of the county’s public overall health division at a important time, as the county pivots from the COVID-19 pandemic to endemic infections that continue to disrupt the neighborhood, even though to a far lesser degree than in the previous 3 years.
“I am honored to step into this function and tackle some of Sonoma County’s most pressing overall health challenges,” Baldwin-Santana mentioned in a statement.
You can attain Employees Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.