Public health expert Dr Clare Looker has been named Victoria’s next chief health officer as Professor Brett Sutton leaves the role.
Sutton finished up with the Victorian Department of Health on Friday, and Looker takes over for a 12-month stint from Saturday.
Clare Looker, Victoria’s newly appointed chief health officer.
The Health Department described Looker as an experienced public health physician who has held several senior leadership roles since joining the department’s public health team in 2016.
Her experience includes working alongside Sutton throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and holding the position of deputy chief health officer.
Looker is highly regarded in the field and has a strong background in public health medicine, particularly in communicable diseases, environmental health and epidemiology, a department spokesperson said in a statement.
She has also worked in clinical medicine and as an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her contributions in the field were recognised in the 2022 Victorian Public Sector Women Awards.
Looker’s appointment follows the surprise resignation of Sutton in June.
After four years as Victoria’s chief health officer (CHO), Sutton has accepted a new position at the CSIRO, where he is the director of health and biosecurity.
Sutton thanked Victorians in a final tweet before handing over the CHO reins and social media account handle on Friday.
“Thank you, good folk of Victoria,” Sutton posted.
“In the immortal words of Jeff Fenech, I love youse all!”
After announcing his resignation last month, Sutton revealed the toll leading Victoria through the pandemic had taken on him, which included working 16-hour days and receiving death threats.
He acknowledged, with the benefit of hindsight, some aspects of the public health response would have been done differently. Despite becoming a divisive figure in Victoria as a result of his decisions, Sutton was named the 2023 Victorian of the Year for leading the state through the pandemic.
Sutton’s last day on the job coincided with the department announcing it would no longer issue weekly COVID-19 updates via Twitter. COVID data will continue to be updated on the department’s website.
“We once again thank him for his incredible contribution to Victoria since he started in the role in 2019 and wish him every success in his new position,” the Department of Health said in Friday’s final COVID update.
Christian McGrath and Helen O’Brien will jointly act in the role of deputy CHO of communicable diseases and Danny Csutoros as deputy CHO of environment, supporting Looker in her new position.
“I’m a public health physician who has spent 13 years wrangling with some of the tricky challenges of public health,” Looker wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning.
“I’m looking forward to continuing this work and using Twitter (or X?) to get to know you!”
- with AAP
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2023-07-29 01:03:31Z
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