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Merced County public health director resigns after nearly seven years on job
Merced public health officer resigns
Merced County Public Health Director Rebecca Nanyonjo is shown in 2019, during a ceremony recognizing the department for achieving national accreditation (Photo contributed).

BY VICTOR PATTON

CV Journalism Collaborative

Merced County’s public health director has stepped down from her role after nearly seven years on the job, The Merced FOCUS has learned.

Rebecca Nanyonjo resigned from her position effective August 20, Merced County spokesperson Mike North confirmed in an email. 

Meanwhile, the county is in the beginning stages of recruiting for a new public health director. North did not elaborate on the reasons behind Nanyonjo’s resignation.

“Since it’s a personnel matter, we can’t comment beyond that due to confidentiality,” North said.

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Nanyonjo was hired as Merced County public health director in January 2018, after having served as a chief deputy director of Stanislaus County’s Health Services Agency. Prior to that, she was public health director for Stanislaus County, according to her LinkedIn page. 

Merced County’s public health department received its national accreditation about a year after Nanyonjo started in her role.

Her time in the position included playing a critical role in spearheading the local response to the COVID pandemic.

Nanyonjo was the leader of the public health department when the county’s first case was discovered in March 2020. She and other health officials witnessed how the virus quickly ballooned into thousands of cases. 

She was critical of the state’s level of transparency during the early days of the COVID vaccine rollout. “We’re essential enough to feed the state, and the world, but we’re not essential enough to keep from dying,” Nanyonjo told the Board of Supervisors during a January 2021 meeting.

In more recent months, Nanyonjo had championed a new Community Health Worker Specialized Training Certificate program that’s a partnership between UC Merced Extension and the Department of Public Health. 

“The San Joaquin Valley is often a forgotten area. We have these persisting inequities in access and navigation to health care. A program of this magnitude in a health provider shortage area is long overdue,” Nanyonjo said in a July UC Merced news release on the program. 

North said Assistant County Executive Officer Mark Hendrickson is stepping in to provide leadership and “ensure continuity of service” until a new director is identified.