CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Fauzia Khan has been named the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health Department's new director of health.
Khan replaces Annette Rodriguez, who was one of the public faces during the city and county's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. City of Corpus Christi Asst. City Manager Steve Viera had been guiding the office since March.
According to a staff announcement released by Zanoni, Khan comes to Texas from the Oklahoma State Department of Health, where she has worked since 2019, and serves as its immunization service director. In that role, Zanoni's announcement states that she manages 70 employees, an $86 million COVID-19 & Vaccine for Children Grant and a vaccine budget of more that $80 million.
Khan has a Master of Public Health from Emory University in Atlanta. While she also holds an MD in Pakistan, she is not licensed to practice medicine in the United States.
She is not required to be a medical doctor to be the city and county's public health director, under the organization's charter, as long as a medical doctor is acting as its Local Health Authority. Dr. Srikanth Ramachandruni currently fills that role.
The appointment is caps a tumultuous year for the city of Corpus Christi and Nueces County's public-health partnership. The city took over management of the public health department March 1 after the collaboration was nearly dissolved.
The city of Corpus Christi voted to create its own public health department in late October 2021, after city manager Peter Zanoni raised the issue during a city council meeting.
He said he felt that city residents would be able to receive more focused and efficient care from a city-run health department in the same way larger cities do.
Shortly after, it was revealed that Rodriguez had filed a lawsuit against Zanoni under the Equal Pay Act in which her attorneys alleged Rodriguez had experienced discrimination based on her sex and a hostile work environment." They also said that "Zanoni has a record of discrimination based on age."
According to a public government salaries database, Rodriguez was paid $304,771 in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. It is unclear how much of that was her base pay, and how much was overtime, since exempt employees such as Rodriguez became eligible for overtime pay when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a public-health emergency.
Khan will make $192,000 as Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health Director.
This is a developing story.
