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Dr. John Hellerstedt, the Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner who helmed the state’s public health response throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, is retiring on the finish of the month, state officers introduced Thursday. Hellerstedt has labored for the state for 14 years, serving because the chief of the health department since 2016.
“He is credited for spearheading the state’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Cecile Erwin Young, the Texas Health and Human Services govt commissioner, wrote in a news launch.
Hellerstedt didn’t instantly return a request for remark Thursday afternoon, however he instructed company workers of his plans in an e mail in early August and mentioned he appears ahead to “spending more time with my wife and eight (soon to be eleven!) grandchildren and perhaps do some traveling.”
He wrote that he’s retiring “with a heavy heart and genuinely mixed emotions.”
“I knew from the outset that the DSHS team was an amazing group of people who carry out a complex and vital mission,” Hellerstedt wrote to the workers. “The experience of our success in the face of the global pandemic only redoubled my admiration.”
Hellerstedt’s interim alternative will likely be Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the chief state epidemiologist on the health company. Shuford was additionally credited with supporting the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to make public health choices. Shuford joined DSHS in 2017 after training as an infectious illness doctor in Austin.
Shuford will take over management of DSHS on Oct. 1 after Hellerstedt’s retirement from state service.
“Dr. Shuford’s passion for service, extensive experience and knowledge in public health will serve us well as she steps into this role,” Young mentioned within the assertion. “I’m confident she will successfully lead DSHS through this transitional time.”
Shuford can be a member of the Travis County Medical Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
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