Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday named Paula Nickelson acting director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services after Republican senators ousted her predecessor over support for COVID-19 vaccination.
Nickelson, a 22-year veteran of the agency, promised to keep the agency on track after Director Don Kauerauf's abrupt departure last month.
"I was interested in assuring our public health system did not falter and we wanted to move forward quickly," Nickelson said at a news conference in Jefferson City.
Nickelson, 66, takes over at a turning point for the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), as it plans to transition to treating COVID-19 as an endemic disease that's here to stay after two years of pandemic response.
After COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surged to their highest points ever in Missouri in December and January because of the omicron variant, the virus is once again in retreat.
About 59% of Missourians age five and older are fully vaccinated — meaning they've received two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or one dose of Johnson & Johnson — behind the national average of 81%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Parson said Missouri is in a "better place" today than at any point in the pandemic because of both vaccinations and the availability of treatments for the virus.
"As we learn to live with COVID and prepare for what comes next to public health, our director is prepared," Parson said.
Nickelson is a lifetime Missourian and has been the administrator of the Office of Emergency Coordination within DHSS's Division of Community and Public Health. Before becoming acting director, she was a deputy director.
She has been closely involved in the state's pandemic response, helping establish the state's first warehouse for personal protective equipment, leading an interagency team that worked to mitigate the virus in nursing homes, oversaw the state's antigen testing program and led the implementation of a decontamination program for N95 masks for health care workers when they remained scarce.
For most of her time at DHSS, she's been focused on maternal-child health, chronic disease prevention and emergency preparedness and response. She holds a bachelor of science in psychology from the University of Central Missouri and a master of education in counseling psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The appointment comes at a turbulent period for DHSS. Nickelson is the 5th person during the pandemic to lead the agency, which has worked to mount an effective public health response while holding to Parson's anti-mandate positions.
Rep. LaDonna Appelbaum, the ranking Democrat on the House Health and Mental Health Committee, called Nickelson "eminently qualified" but wants to question Nickelson about her role in Missouri's "botched COVID response," including problems with antigen testing and contract staffing at hospitals. The Missouri Independent reported Monday how Missouri spent $25 million on a no-bid contract with a Texas company aimed at getting health care workers into hospitals with mixed results.
I look forward to speaking with her soon to understand her thought process during and approach to these challenges and how she plans to lead the department in the future should she be successful in her confirmation," Appelbaum said in a statement.
"That said, Missouri needs stability at the head of DHSS as we continue to deal with the worst public health crisis of the 21st century. We had an eminently qualified individual effectively run out of town by vitriol and rhetoric," Appelbaum said. "I hope the same does not happen to Acting Director Nickelson."
Kauerauf resigned in early February after the Missouri Senate failed to confirm him. While Kauerauf had been on the job since September, his nomination became ensnared in volatile COVID politics, with hard-right senators calling attention to his past work in Democratic-leaning Illinois and past comments in favor of COVID-19 vaccination.
Parson raged at the Senate at the time, saying it was "unfortunate that we now have to disrupt state operations and the leadership at an entire department because the Missouri Senate chose to indulge a few men's egos."
DHSS general counsel Richard Moore had led the agency since Kauerauf's resignation.
"With Paula there, I think that satisfies the idea that the Department of Health is in stable hands and a stable position," Parson said.
