Sacramento County eyes new health director from California social services agency
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is expected to name Chevon Kothari as the next director of health services, a job with broad authority over programs from psychiatric services and public health to primary care and medical services delivered inside the county jails.
Kothari was most recently the chief deputy director in the California Department of Social Services, overseeing the agency’s community care licensing, legal, disaster services and state hearings divisions. She was sworn in for the position in July 2020.
If appointed by the supervisors Tuesday, Kothari would return to county leadership. She previously served as director of Mariposa County’s health and human services agency.
The county Department of Health Services has been without a permanent leader after Dr. Peter Beilenson left the position last year and moved back to Baltimore. Jim Hunt, a former department director who retired in 2007, returned and has been leading the department until a replacement is named.
The job is among the more highly visible departments, particularly in the last year as the county’s shouldered the heaviest burden of managing the coronavirus pandemic.
A nationwide search was conducted by Robert Neher & Associates to help identify candidates for the job. A group including county executives, leaders of the mental health and drug advisory boards, and other industry and community leaders selected Kothari for the job, according to a staff report.
Kothari first began working as a mental health specialist in Corvallis, Ore. after graduating from the University of Illinois, according to her Linkedin profile. She moved to California and worked in Tulare County’s health and human services agency for more than two years before relocating nearby to Mariposa County in 2003.
Kothari remained in the small rural community well-known for Yosemite National Park for 18 years. She served in various leadership roles at nonprofits, local government and as a private consultant.
The county health services director job pays $225,000.