Health Department firings
The new head of the Milwaukee agency has let two top officials go.
Milwaukee’s new health commissioner has fired two top city officials, including a staffer who helped lead the push to declare racism a public health crisis — making Milwaukee the first in the U.S. to do so and starting a national movement.
Kirsten Johnson, who started her job as Milwaukee’s health commissioner last week, on Tuesday fired Lilliann Paine and Griselle Torres, who were serving as chief of staff and the deputy commissioner of policy, innovation and engagement.
“I thank them both for the tremendous amount of work they have put in to support MHD during the pandemic and their passion for public health, data, and equity,” Johnson wrote in a Tuesday evening email to department staffers.
Johnson added that she is “building a team to move us forward, to get us out of this pandemic and build systems so decisions are made systematically, and collaboratively while upholding our values.”
The firings are just the latest of many staffing changes in recent years at the Health Department, which was rocked by controversy in early 2018 amid news that health staffers had failed to follow up and provide services to the families of thousands of children who had tested positive for lead poisoning. The scandal led to the ouster of Bevan Baker, the commissioner at the time.
Johnson, who left her job as head of the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department to come to Milwaukee, is the third person to lead the department in recent years and was chosen after Jeanette Kowalik resigned last year to take a job with a national health policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
Johnson acknowledged the recent turmoil in her email.
“Change is hard, scary and uncomfortable. I know there has been a lot of change over the last four years and I wish I could say there will not be more. I do not want to make false promises,” she wrote. “Give yourselves grace and kindness. It is going to take us months, if not years to fully renovate MHD.”
She added, “I am here for it. I am here for you. I am here to make change happen.”
Johnson also wrote that she is focused on equity and diversity.
“Please be assured I am committed to health equity and diversity,” she wrote.
“Diverse voices will always be at the decision making table. And if they are not, call me on it.”
Paine has been honored for her efforts to address health disparities, especially for her work with the city and the county on declaring racism a public health crisis. The resolutions are linked to her efforts with the Wisconsin Public Health Association to acknowledge racial discrimination in housing, education, employment and criminal justice, and the effects those problems have on health.
The declarations also helped lead Milwaukee to quickly report racial and ethnic disparities that emerged early in the COVID-19 pandemic, making the county one of the first areas to do so — and helping expose a nationwide problem.
Paine declined to comment to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Torres said her firing was sudden and “unexpected.”
She added that when Kowalik left, there had been a conversation with top city officials that “there would be no sudden moves once a new leadership would be selected because of the pandemic, but also because from a leadership standpoint you want at least a transition within the first 90 days.”
Torres said that didn’t happen at all.
“There was no transition, no forewarning,” she said. “Which is pretty concerning because there were a lot of large-scale, department-wide projects that I was overseeing.”
She added, “We’re in a pandemic, so destabilization is a big concern.”
Torres had been working with Paine on a racial equity plan for the Health Department, as well as developing a new digital system for a new electronic health record in an effort to help modernize the department, she said.
A city spokesman said the contributions from both Paine and Torres were appreciated.
“We respect the work that both women contributed to the Milwaukee Health Department,” spokesman Jeff Fleming said.