Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced Thursday that he would like Kathryn Anderson to fill the role of county health commissioner.

“When this opportunity came up, it seemed the perfect fit to me," Anderson said. "I feel fortunate to live in this community. I’m proud to live in this community that responded to COVID-19 and continues to respond to COVID-19 with such resiliency and creativity.”

Nominated for county health commissioner, Anderson moved to CNY from Minnesota in 2019. She has continued her practice as an epidemiologist and served as the director of the Center for International Research, Institute for Global Health at Upstate Medical University.

“One of the reasons why I am so inspired and motivated to take on this role, as well and work with the county health department, is because of what I see every day as a resident of Onondaga County, and in in the hospital which is often the wider public health issues facing our community," Anderson said. For example, the opioid epidemic or health disparities that result in drastically different health disparities, depending on how you grew up and where you grew up.”

Having almost 20 years of experience in infectious diseases, Anderson said looking into COVID-19 has been drastically different from studying other diseases because she was actually living in an area where it was spreading.

Now that polio and monkeypox have been diagnosed, she said they, like COVID, have the potential to be very serious, especially polio.

“With monkeypox, I am hopeful that we can start to turn the tide. I don’t know if we will be able to prevent it from becoming established in our community, but I think we have tools in hand for that too. And then keeping an eye out for, God forbid, what the next thing to come may be,” Anderson said. 

She said despite all the challenges from the pandemic, she is thankful for the relationships she has built with colleagues in the public health department and is proud to call Central New York home.

Anderson's nomination needs confirmation from the County Legislature.