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September 25, 2023
Contact: Afiq Hisham, 971-273-3374, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov
OHA Public Health Director Rachael Banks to depart in November; Cara Biddlecom to serve as Interim Public Health Director
(PORTLAND, Ore – Sept. 25, 2023) Rachael Banks, director of Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) Public Health Division will depart the agency to head the Multnomah County Health Department. Director Banks’ last day with OHA will be mid-November, 2023.
“I’m bringing my career full circle by returning to Multnomah County,” said Director Banks. “While I look forward to returning home, I am proud of the work we’ve accomplished in public health and at OHA. This team has saved lives, reduced health inequities, listened to the priorities of communities across the state and responded to them. I will miss my state colleagues, but I look forward to deepening our collaboration in new ways as I return to Multnomah County.”
Director Banks has led the state public health division for three years. Under her leadership, the Public Health Division (PHD) worked collaboratively with OHA partners, other state agencies, the Governor’s Office, legislators and community partners to:
- Close COVID-19 vaccine equity gaps among communities of color and Tribal communities, LGBTQIA2S+ communities and people with disabilities.
- Expand funding for community-based organizations and forge new partnerships that gave community-based organizations, Tribes, schools, regional health equity coalitions, faith-based institutions, and others more voice and power in shaping public health practices and priorities.
- Increase PHD investments in public health modernization, giving local public health authorities and community partners more resources to tackle communicable disease outbreaks, contaminants in drinking water, the effects of climate change and broader social factors that affect the health of people and the communities in which they live.
- Maintain PHD’s commitment to protecting access to reproductive health services to everyone in the state.
- Expand access to life-saving harm-reduction programs and the wider distribution of naloxone, which has reversed thousands of potentially fatal overdoses.
- Create the nation’s first regulatory framework to provide psilocybin services as part of Ballot Measure 109, as well as launching a new section at Oregon Public Health Division to implement it.
Director Banks also recently led the Oregon Public Health Division through the process of reaccreditation, once again demonstrating the division’s ability to meet stringent national standards for increasing effectiveness and efficiency of Oregon’s public health system infrastructure.
In a message to all agency staff, interim OHA director David Baden said: “I will miss (Rachael’s) knowledge, wisdom and friendship. But I know she will bring all the qualities that made her such an extraordinary leader at the state to her new role at the state’s largest health department. And though she won’t be with OHA directly, she will continue to set an example and shape our important work.”
Cara Biddlecom will step in as the Interim Public Director. Biddlecom currently serves as the Deputy Public Health Director for the Public Health Division.
The state will soon launch a national search for a new public health director.
The mission of OHA’s Public Health Division (OHA-PHD) is to promote health and prevent the leading causes of death, disease and injury in Oregon. OHA-PHD’s vision is lifelong health for all Oregonians. The Public Health Division works in partnership with local public health authorities (LPHAs), Tribes, community- based organizations (CBOs), health systems and others to elevate community priorities for health into programs designed to eliminate health inequities by 2030. OHA-PHD has a 2023-2025 biennial budget of nearly $1.4 billion and employs more than 800 staff statewide.
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