Director of Knox Co. Health Department Dr. Martha Buchanan resigns

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dr. Martha Buchanan, who led the Knox County Health Department during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, handed in her resignation on Thursday.

She informed the workplace of Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs Thursday that she would step down. Officers mentioned she would phase down as the director of KCHD on Oct. 1 and would action down as the county’s health officer on Dec. 31.

Spanish Model: Renuncia la Dra. Martha Buchanan, directora del Departamento de Salud del Condado de Knox

As county health officer, Buchanan would continue to have the authority to problem restrictions in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It has been my honor to serve with the Health Department workforce in support of the Knox County community these past 17 many years,” she claimed in a assertion. “The excellence, knowledge, and determination they demonstrate each working day is beyond comparison. I am incredibly happy of the get the job done we have accomplished alongside one another to increase health in Knox County. Even so, I feel it is time for me to transfer on to the following chapter of my daily life.”

A successor has not been named. A national search is expected to be carried out.

Charity Menefee, who acted as a different leader in KCHD for the duration of the peak of the pandemic, left the position in July.

Buchanan served on the Board of Health as they talked about how to technique the many health crises produced by the pandemic. During the pandemic, she emphasised persons put on masks and get vaccinated for COVID-19 to retain their communities healthy, even if masks have been not mandated.

She also made a tests website at the KCHD when conditions first started out becoming described in Knox County, serving to acquire facts health leaders required in order to respond to COVID-19.

Following graduating from medical school at East Tennessee State University and finishing a residency in North Dakota, Buchanan opened her first family members medicine practice in Jellico, Tennessee. Finally, she took a task with the health department, and the rest is heritage.

Right before she walked up the podium for conferences and meetings, she stated she often assumed of her father.

“I always credit rating my dad for my potential to communicate in general public because he produced me pray at church and discuss at church, so I uncovered early on how to communicate in public,” Buchanan explained in May well 2020.

On Wednesday, as the amount of COVID-19 conditions carries on to increase in East Tennessee, she urged people to at the time all over again use masks. She also suggested Knox County Educational institutions leaders stick to advice from the Facilities for Disease Management and Avoidance and require masks in faculties.

Knox County mayor Glenn Jacobs launched a assertion about her resignation on Thursday. He said he was amazed to obtain her resignation and that he respects the function she’d finished in advance of and in the course of the pandemic. His assertion can be read in total underneath:

“I recognize Dr. Buchanan’s choice and desire her the very best but was astonished to get her resignation now. I respect the get the job done she’s finished in the identify of community health—during the pandemic and effectively in advance of it. She is very regarded in the medical community, by health department team, and by me. We are privileged she has served Knox County for as lengthy as she has. Her job is a significant-strain task that has come to be even more demanding because of to COVID-19, and I admire what she’s accomplished in this kind of a tricky year. Dr. Buchanan will go on serving Knox County as the regional public health officer right until the conclusion of December, and we look to ahead to working with her until then.”

Knoxville mayor Indya Kincannon lamented the final decision, contacting Buchanan a “robust chief.”

“I regret to hear that Dr. Martha Buchanan has made the decision to resign this fall from the place of Senior Director of the Knox County Health Department. She’s been a powerful chief, specifically through the COVID-19 pandemic. The men and women of Knoxville have benefited enormously from her know-how and braveness. She has attained our gratitude and regard.” 

She was predicted to be at a push convention on Tuesday afternoon. Additional data about that conference was not straight away offered.