LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dr. Sarah Moyer, who led Louisville’s public health department during the COVID-19 pandemic, is leaving Metro Louisville to become the Chief Medical Officer for Humana Healthy Horizons—Humana’s Medicaid business in Kentucky.
Dr. Moyer was named medical director of the Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW) in 2015 and was appointed department director and the city’s chief health strategist in 2017.
“From the get-go, Dr. Moyer was instrumental in leading our Louisville Metro Public Wellness team’s award-winning approaches to improving the health of all our residents, and she has shown those skills as our community navigated a once-in-a-century global pandemic,” Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement. “I want to thank Dr. Moyer for her partnership, and I’m pleased to see her continue to be a leader in our community through her new role at Humana.”
Besides leading Louisville’s COVID-19 response, Dr. Moyer helped LMPHW achieve national accreditation, established the department as an academic health department, stopped a hepatitis A outbreak, started the state’s first syringe exchange program and helped strengthen Louisville’s smoke-free ordinance.
In the same news release from Mayor Fischer, Moyer said, “I’m incredibly excited for this new opportunity, but leaving is bittersweet. LMPHW is like family to me–family devoted to serving a community we love. We’ve worked together to get to the root of unhealthy and unfair conditions and improve them so that everyone, in every ZIP code, can enjoy good health and wellbeing.”
Mayor Fischer appointed Dr. Jeff Howard, LMPHW’s medical director, to serve as interim director and chief health strategist. Howard was named medical director in 2021. Before joining LMPHW, Dr. Howard was appointed as a White House Fellow in 2019, where he served as a health policy adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. He has also served as the Commission for Public Health and Chief Medical Officer of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
“I look forward to this opportunity to serve my fellow Louisvillians,” said Dr. Howard. “The ongoing pandemic has highlighted the necessity of a strong public health system and the Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness team has time and again demonstrated the ability to meet that need. I am grateful for their service and to be counted among them.”
Dr. Howard will assume his new role on May 27, and Dr. Moyer will begin her new position with Humana on July 5, 2022. She will remain in an advisory role to Mayor Fischer through the end of the fiscal year.