Hochul Appoints New Commissioner Of Health After Zucker Resigns

LONG ISLAND, NY — Days after Dr. Howard Zucker's resignation, Gov. Kathy Hochul has appointed a new commissioner to the New York State Department of Health.

Hochul announced that Dr. Mary T. Bassett had been tapped as the new commissioner. According to Hochul, Bassett brings to the post more than 30 years of experience devoted to promoting health equity and social justice, both in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Bassett's career has spanned academia, government, and not-for-profit work, Hochul said.

Her appointment is effective December 1.

"Our recovery from this pandemic requires tested leadership and experience to improve health equity and access across the state, and Dr. Bassett is perfectly equipped to lead the New York State Department of Health during this critical moment," Hochul said. "Dr. Bassett is both a highly regarded public health expert and an exemplary public servant, and I look forward to working with her to keep New Yorkers safe and healthy."

Bassett said she was "humbled and honored" to return to her home state of New York to lead the Department of Health at such a "pivotal" time.

"The pandemic underscored the importance of public health, while also revealing inequities driven by structural racism. As we move to end the pandemic, we have a unique opportunity to create a state that is more equitable for all New Yorkers," Bassett said.

Bassett currently serves as director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

From 2014 through the summer of 2018, she served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she made racial justice a priority and worked to address the structural racism at the root of the city's persistent gaps in health between white New Yorkers and communities of color, Hochul's release said.

Bassett also led the department's response to Ebola, Legionnaires' disease, and other disease outbreaks, Hochul said.

In 2002, Dr. Bassett was appointed deputy commissioner of health promotion and disease prevention at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she headed up the division responsible for New York City's pioneering tobacco control interventions and food policy, including the nation's first calorie posting requirements and trans fat restrictions, Hochul's release said.

Bassett also launched district public health offices in neighborhoods marked by racial, ethnic, and economic health inequities, Hochul said. She also served as program director for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's African Health Initiative and Child Well-Being Prevention Program.

Early in her career, Bassett served on the medical faculty at the University of Zimbabwe for 17 years, during which time she developed a range of AIDS prevention interventions; later, she served as associate director of health equity at the Rockefeller Foundation's Southern Africa Office, overseeing its Africa AIDS portfolio.

Bassett, who grew up in New York City, has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors for her work; she received a B.A. in history and science from Harvard University, an M.D. from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons — serving her residency at Harlem Hospital) — and an M.P.H. from the University of Washington.

Of Dr. Zucker's resignation, Hochul said she'd made it clear from the moment she took office that she was looking to build a new team.