Milwaukee’s health commissioner has resigned to take a new job in Washington D.C. as the city and county continue to battle the coronavirus pandemic, one of the most serious public health crises in generations.

Jeanette Kowalik will join national policy, research and advocacy group Trust for America’s Health as director of policy development, according to a news release issued Wednesday morning by the city Health Department.

“As much as I love my hometown, I believe that I am limited due to factors that are out of my control,” Kowalik said in the news release.

“This was evident at multiple points in time through our pandemic response, from access to testing, promotion of masks/face coverings, gathering limits, orders, messaging and outreach for communities of color, and various threats to Health Officers,” she said.

Kowalik is just the latest in a string of high-profile and cabinet-leveldepartures from Mayor Tom Barrett’s administration.

A Milwaukee native, Kowalik became health commissioner in September 2018, months after the previous health commissioner, Bevan Baker, was pushed out after the department made a series of missteps and failures related to treating and notifying lead-poisoned children and the department’s cancer screening and family planning programs.

Kowalik replaced Patricia McManus, who served as interim commissioner.

Under her leadership, Milwaukee declared racism a public health crisis in 2019 and the city and county were among the first in the nation to publicly report data on the race and ethnicity of COVID-19 patients and those who died from the virus.

“We discovered that racism was playing out through the pandemic, which led to a shift in our strategy,” Kowalik said in the news release.

Since the first coronavirus case was reported March 13, the city has reported more than 17,700 positive cases and more than 275 deaths from the virus.

The Milwaukee Health Department leadership team, which includes five deputy commissioners and a chief of staff, will manage the department until a new health commissioner is in place, she said. 

Kowalik added she will “continue to provide support through the transition.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett thanked Kowalik for her service to the city.

“I am grateful to Commissioner Kowalik for her dedication and leadership, especially during this pandemic,” Barrett said in a release. “She is leaving the department in a solid position to continue to make progress. I wish her the very best as she advances to her new position.”

Ald. Robert Bauman said he was not surprised by her departure, and criticized her leadership of the long-troubled department.

“I don’t think she was very effective,” Bauman said. “She was essentially completely unresponsive.”

Bauman blamed Kowalik for some of the confusion among business owners and others as they tried to navigate coronavirus concerns. Her department was criticized early in the pandemic for not having enough contact tracers — something city officials said they quickly remedied — and later for changing guidance on school reopenings.

Coronavirus takes a toll on public health leaders

As health commissioner, Kowalik led the city and county response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But many of the steps she and other local authorities took to try to contain the virus were overturned at the state level as the pandemic turned into a partisan conflict over stay-at-home orders and mask mandates.

“Being a local health officer is limiting — especially in this state now more than ever,” Kowalik tweeted Wednesday, adding that it was a sentiment shared by local health officers across Wisconsin. She added hashtags citing COVID-19 burnout.

In mid-May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order, siding with Republican lawmakers over the Democratic governor’s administration. 

The decision led to a patchwork of local rules across the state, and the city of Milwaukee maintained its own stay-at-home public health order after the court’s ruling.

In mid-July, Milwaukee officials approved a mask ordinance for indoor and outdoor public spaces, weeks before Evers launched a statewide mask mandate. Evers made the decision Aug. 1 after coronavirus cases began to climb in Wisconsin after a two-month downturn in late spring and early summer.

Just last week, a conservative legal firm announced it was going to court to try to eliminate the statewide mask mandate.

In addition, public health leaders across the country — particularly those who are women — have faced attacks and harassment as they sought to respond to the pandemic.

Ohio’s statewide public health officer stepped down after demonstrators carrying guns protested outside her house. In California, a health officer resigned after attendees at a public meeting rattled off her home address and referenced their right to bear arms.

Closer to Milwaukee, Kirsten Johnson, the top public health official for Ozaukee and Washington counties, said her employees have been harassed online and have been yelled at, cursed at, and, on two occasions, followed while they were driving a health department vehicle in West Bend.

“It’s just this daily barrage of anger,” Johnson said. “It’s taking a toll on people emotionally.”

The troubled past of Milwaukee’s Health Department

Kowalik took over a health department shaken by a string of controversies and staff departures.

A top official in the lead program, Lisa Lien, resigned in July 2018 rather than be fired, according to city records. 

Richard Gaeta, who played a key role in the city’s lead-poisoning prevention program, was fired a month later after he reportedly resisted using federal funding to clean up lead hazards in homes that had lead-poisoned children living in them, according to personnel investigations.

Tiffany Barta, the city’s director of nursing, was suspended for five days in fall 2018 following a personnel investigation into her conduct that said she had sabotaged the department.  And the city’s director of family and community health, Tasha Jenkins, lost her job soon after. She was in charge of the city’s family planning and cancer screening programs, both of which struggled in 2018 to provide key services to residents.

The mayor will have to begin a search for a new health commissioner with Kowalik’s departure. So far, no timeframe has been set. Kowalik earned just over $132,000 in 2019, according to the latest city salary figures available.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Contact Ashley Luthern at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @aluthern.

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