Gov. Tina Kotek announced Monday that she has appointed Dr. Sejal Hathi as the next director of the Oregon Health Authority.
Hathi is New Jersey’s deputy health commissioner for public health services and the designated state health officer. Prior to that, she served for two years as the White House’s senior policy adviser for public health.
A board-certified attending physician, she also was assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Hathi is the first leader at OHA recruited from out of state since the agency was established in 2009.
“I’m both excited and humbled to be a part of the ground-breaking advances in health care access that are happening in Oregon,” Hathi said in written remarks provided by the governor’s office.
“I look forward to continuing this proud tradition and working with the team to make every community in the state a healthier place to live.”
Hathi’s first day is Jan. 16.
The agency has been without a permanent director for nearly a year. Kotek announced on the campaign trail she intended to replace then-director Patrick Allen. Allen had led the agency through a period of relative stability and headed Oregon’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but made little progress improving the state’s ability to deliver addiction treatment and care for people with serious mental illnesses.
Kotek’s choice for interim director, James Shcroeder, resigned after less than two months in the role. Dave Baden, previously OHA’s chief financial officer, is serving as interim director.
The agency has the largest budget of any in the state and is in need of rebuilding after the pandemic, the political transition and burnout have gutted its ranks.
At the same time, the incoming OHA director will have to oversee several high-stakes and complex new initiatives, among them the mandate to improve implementation of Oregon’s controversial drug decriminalization measure, a federal waiver that has Oregon experimenting with major changes to its Medicaid services, the launch of a Basic Health Program and the expiration in 2026 of the taxes that provide state funding for the Medicaid program.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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