Gov. Neil Abercrombie has appointed Dr. Linda Rosen to be the state’s new director of the Department of Health.
Rosen has served since 2000 in a variety of DOH roles. They include medical director of the department’s Family Health Services Division and Pediatric Emergency Services, deputy director for the Health Resources Administration and, most recently, as chief of the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch.
She also has more than three decades of experience in the medical field. A pediatrician by training, she worked at Kapiolani Medical Center for Woman and Children from 1985 to 2000. She has also been a faculty member of the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine since 1987 where she is currently an associate clinical professor of pediatrics and surgery.
Rosen graduated from Punahou School and then earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, a master’s degree in public health from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine.
Rosen takes over the department following the Dec. 11 death of former director Loretta Fuddy, who died of cardiac arrhythmia following the forced water landing of a commuter aircraft off Molokai.
Gary Gill, chief of the DOH’s Environmental Health Administration, served as interim health director until returning to his post earlier this month.
Rosen’s appointment must be confirmed by the state Senate.
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