PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Public Health’s new health director began work Tuesday.
Vicki Kirkpatrick, 63, replaces Jean Baldwin, who retired as public health director in February.
“This department has a great reputation already for doing some very good and innovative things,” Kirkpatrick said.
“My goal is to support that and to keep looking toward the future — what are the trends and what the future looks like, how do we define it and how do we get there, what do we need to be doing to protect and promote health.”
Kirkpatrick earns $96,618 a year.
Kirkpatrick’s duties are planning, organizing, directing and evaluating daily operations, as well as collaborating with other divisions, agencies and community partners throughout the county and state, according to a county public health department news release.
“It’s early for me to say anything specific about what’s facing this department,” Kirkpatrick said on her first day at work.
“In general we are recognizing that there is really very little that doesn’t impact health and that health doesn’t impact.
“There’s economic development, quality-of-life issues, the impact of poverty on health and recognizing that health is about more than access to a physician.
“We are also taking about the social determinance of health, the impact of adverse childhood experiences,” she continued.
“We keep learning about how those traumas early in life continue and perpetuate. It’s really bringing the whole body together.”
She added that mental health is part of physical health.
“You can’t separate those things,” she said.
Kirkpatrick joins Jefferson County after having served as director of the Mason County Department of Public Health and Human Services.
While at Mason County, she served on a statewide Foundational Public Health Services Policy Workgroup that established definitions for Foundational Public Health Services & Capabilities, and developed funding recommendations for future legislative action, Jefferson County Public Health said.
Kirkpatrick has held leadership positions with Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
She began her career in Oregon at the state Department of Revenue, where she was an administrative analyst.
She moved into public health as the director of administration in Tacoma-Pierce County.
