Merced County’s public health director has stepped down from her role after nearly seven years on the job, The Merced FOCUS has learned.

Victor A. Patton

The Merced FOCUS

Rebecca Nanyonjo resigned from her position effective Aug. 20, Merced County spokesperson Mike North confirmed in an email.

Meanwhile, the county is in the beginning stages of recruiting for a new public health director. North did not elaborate on the reasons behind Nanyonjo’s resignation. “Since it’s a personnel matter, we can’t comment beyond that due to confidentiality,” North said.

Nanyonjo was hired as Merced County public health director in January 2018, after having served as a chief deputy director of Stanislaus County’s Health Services Agency. Prior to that, she was public health director for Stanislaus County, according to her LinkedIn page.

Merced County’s public health department received its national accreditation about a year after Nanyonjo started in her role.

Helped Lead Local Response to COVID

Her time in the position included playing a critical role in spearheading the local response to the COVID pandemic.

Nanyonjo was the leader of the public health department when the county’s first case was discovered in March 2020. She and other health officials witnessed how the virus quickly ballooned into thousands of cases.

She was critical of the state’s level of transparency during the early days of the COVID vaccine rollout. “We’re essential enough to feed the state, and the world, but we’re not essential enough to keep from dying,” Nanyonjo told the Board of Supervisors during a January 2021 meeting.

In more recent months, Nanyonjo had championed a new Community Health Worker Specialized Training Certificate program that’s a partnership between UC Merced Extension and the Department of Public Health.

“The San Joaquin Valley is often a forgotten area. We have these persisting inequities in access and navigation to health care. A program of this magnitude in a health provider shortage area is long overdue,” Nanyonjo said in a July UC Merced news release on the program.

North said Assistant County Executive Officer Mark Hendrickson is stepping in to provide leadership and “ensure continuity of service” until a new director is identified.

About the Author

Victor Patton is editor-in-chief of The Merced FOCUS.