Schwarzenegger Names Department of Health Services Director, Public Health Officer

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Thursday announced the appointment of Sandra Shewry to serve as director of the Department of Health Services and designated Dr. Richard Jackson as state public health officer at DHS. Shewry most recently served as director of the health division of the National Governors Association. Prior to her tenure with NGA, Shewry was deputy director and later, executive director of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which administers Healthy Families. Shewry also has served as an assistant secretary at the Health and Welfare Agency -- now known as the Health and Human Services Agency -- and as a health planning and policy analyst for DHS. The Senate must approve the appointment. The DHS director receives an annual salary of $123,255. Jackson has served as senior adviser to the director of CDC since 2003 and was director of the National Center for Environmental Health from 1994 to 2003. Previously, Jackson was director of DHS' Division of Communicable Disease Control and held positions at the World Health Organization and U.S. Public Health Service. The Senate is not required to approve his designation (Office of the Governor release, 3/18). In a letter to DHS personnel, HHS Secretary Kim Belshe said that Shewry would assume the position beginning March 29 and that Jackson would start work "sometime in April" (Belshe letter, 3/18).