Allegheny Health Board Taps North Carolina Doctor As New Director
The department has been without a permanent director for more than a year.
DR. IULIA VANN | PHOTO COURTESY DR. IULIA VANN
It’s been 1½ years since Allegheny County has had a permanent health director. But that may soon change after the county health board this week voted unanimously to nominate Dr. Iulia Vann for the post. The nomination must still be approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Vann, a Romanian native, is public health director of Guilford County in North Carolina, a county of 555,000 residents — half the size of the 1.2 million residents in Allegheny County. She took that role in 2020 and steered the county through the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. She also serves as the president of the North Carolina Public Health Association.
She will be paid $275,000 a year, according to the Tribune Review.
“We conducted a long and thorough national search for the next director of the Allegheny County Health Department and Dr. Vann was our top choice among many excellent candidates,” Dr. Edie Shapira, board of health member and co-chair of the search committee for the county health director, said in a statement.
Allegheny County has been without a permanent health director since January 2023, when new Gov. Josh Shapiro tapped former director Dr. Debra Bogen as the state’s acting health secretary.
Patrick Dowd, who had served as Allegheny County’s acting health director, recently was hired to be head of the Environmental Charter School in the city’s East End; he will depart that health post on July 9, at which time Dr. Barbara Nightingale, deputy director for the department’s Clinical Services, will step in until Vann arrives.
Vann has a medical degree from Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. She received a master’s in public health analysis and management from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina in 2014.
The Allegheny County Health Department provides immunizations, dentistry and sexual health resources as well as enforcement of improved air quality, lead exposure and other environmental factors that impact residents.
