{"id":26856,"date":"2024-12-06T08:57:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T15:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=26856"},"modified":"2024-12-06T13:57:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T20:57:40","slug":"colleen-chawla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/colleen-chawla\/","title":{"rendered":"Colleen Chawla, San Mateo County's new health chief"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Colleen
County Executive Mike Callagy announced Thursday the appointment of Colleen Chawla as the new chief of San Mateo County Health, the largest department in the organization. Photo: San Mateo County<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Listen to this note:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

County Executive Mike Callagy announced Thursday the appointment of Colleen Chawla as the new chief of San Mateo County Health<\/a>, the largest department in the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am very excited to introduce Colleen to our community. She brings tremendous enthusiasm to take on this leadership role that has a huge impact on so many of our residents,\u201d Callagy said. \u201cHer extensive experience in executive and health leadership will serve the county and community well today and in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chawla comes to the Peninsula from Alameda County Health, where she has served as agency director since 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors is expected to confirm Chawla's appointment on Tuesday. Chawla will take office Feb. 18, 2025, as head of a department with 2,200 employees and an annual budget of $1.3 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chawla attributes her interest in health policy and administration to her volunteer work more than three decades ago for an AIDS information hotline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat volunteer position marked the beginning of a career in health policy and public health, sustained over the years by the things I care most about: the right to health, equity and justice, and managing public trust,\u201d Chawla said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chawla emerged as the leading candidate to succeed Louise Rogers, who has served as health chief since 2015. Rogers announced this fall that she would retire after 22 years of serving in numerous leadership roles at San Mateo County Health.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have known Colleen for many years,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cTogether we have navigated many of the challenges of the pandemic as Bay Area health directors and she has always been calm and thoughtful in the face of everything that has come our way. She also seems to find grace and a sense of humor, as is often needed. I will retire with great confidence that the County Health Department is in good hands.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chawla holds a master's degree in public administration\/health services administration from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Southern California. Prior to joining Alameda County, she held several positions during her 13 years with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, including deputy health director.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Alameda County health director, Chawla has overseen 1,900 employees and a $1.2 billion annual budget in a county with a population more than twice that of San Mateo County.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s portfolio includes public health, behavioral health, environmental health, and housing and homelessness. One key difference: San Mateo County operates its own public hospital, San Mateo Medical Center; Alameda County has a separate agency that operates its public hospitals and clinics.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> New labor contracts approved for San Mateo County employees<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Escucha esta nota:   El ejecutivo del condado, Mike Callagy, anunci\u00f3 este jueves el nombramiento de Colleen Chawla como nueva jefa de Salud del Condado de San Mateo, el departamento m\u00e1s grande de la organizaci\u00f3n. \u201cEstoy muy emocionado de presentar a Colleen a nuestra comunidad. Ella aporta un enorme entusiasmo para asumir este rol de […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26856"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26881,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26856\/revisions\/26881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}