Milwaukee health chief names two top staffers
Two new staffers will take on top positions at the Milwaukee Health Department, the department announced Wednesday.
The announcement came two weeks after new Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson fired their predecessors.
Bailey Murph will become deputy commissioner of policy, innovation and engagement, a position in which her responsibilities will include developing public health policy and increasing the department’s presence in the community, according to a statement from the Health Department.
Murph has been director of health strategy at the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department, where Johnson was the director before she was hired last month to lead the Milwaukee Health Department.
Murph received her master’s of public health degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Zilber School of Public Health, according to the Health Department.
Myra Edwards will become chief of staff. She has worked in Mayor Tom Barrett’s office since 2007 as a senior adviser and three years ago took on additional responsibility as the office’s council liaison officer.
Edwards’ career has focused on addressing poverty, race and gender equity and youth development, according to the Health Department.
Soon after entering the new role leading the department, Johnson fired Lilliann Paine and Griselle Torres, who were serving as chief of staff and the deputy commissioner of policy, innovation and engagement.
Paine helped lead the push to declare racism a public health crisis in Milwaukee, declarations at the city and county that put the community in a leading role in the nation.
“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 an email to department staffers after Paine and Torres were let go.
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.”
She also wrote that she is focused on equity and diversity.
Johnson is the third person to lead the department during the pandemic. Former Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik resigned last year to take a job with a national health policy think tank in Washington, D.C.