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Gov. Kathy Hochul nominates new health commissioner
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Mar 24, 2023
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NY State Department of Health
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Mar 24, 2023
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Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that she has nominated Dr. James McDonald, a trained pediatrician, to serve as the state’s health commissioner.
If confirmed by the state Senate, McDonald would be taking the reins of an agency that has seen an outsized role during the COVID-19 pandemic and through other public health crises, including multiple states of emergency over mpox and polio last year.
McDonald has been serving as New York state’s acting health commissioner since January, and has been nominated to lead the agency on a permanent basis.
He would succeed Dr. Mary Bassett, who resigned effective Jan. 1. Bassett became Hochul’s health commissioner after the 2021 resignation of Commissioner Howard Zucker, a familiar presence on former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s televised COVID-19 briefings.
“Dr. James V. McDonald is a talented public health leader with the skills and experience necessary to lead our Department of Health,” Hochul said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
Spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McDonald, a native of Cohoes, New York, joined the state’s health department last July. In addition to being a board-certified pediatrician, he is also a practitioner of preventive medicine whose experience includes several roles within the Rhode Island Department of Health.
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