Charity Dean | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Tulane University School of Medicine and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine |
| Occupation | CEO / Public Health Physician |
| Organization | The Public Health Company |
| Website | https://www.phc.health/ |
Charity Dean is an American public health physician who is known for her work as the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. She is the co-founder and CEO of The Public Health Company.
Dean grew up in rural Oregon and became interested in becoming a doctor and studying infectious disease as a young child. [1] She completed a B.S. in Microbiology at Oregon State University, an M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [2] From 2008 through 2011, she was an internal medicine resident at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. [3]
As a public health official in Santa Barbara County, Dean gained experience with containment of infectious disease outbreaks, including meningitis in 2013 [4] and tuberculosis in 2014. [5] From 2011 through 2014, she was the deputy public health officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, [3] and from 2014 through 2018, she was the public health officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. [6]
In late 2018, [7] she became the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health. [4] [8] In January 2020, she began to warn state officials about COVID-19, [9] based on reports from China, [10] [11] and continued for months. [4] In April 2020, she was also appointed as co-chair of the California COVID-19 testing task force, which included efforts to expand access to testing. [12] [13] Her work included coordination with elected officials and the White House Coronavirus Task Force. [14] She left her position as the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health in July 2020, [8] after submitting her resignation on June 4, [15] and then began "tweeting news and information, some of which could be seen as a comment on California’s COVID testing and response," according to Deadline in August 2020. [16]
In July 2020, she was featured in the ABC News 20/20 investigative report American Catastrophe, [17] and in May 2021, she was featured in a 60 Minutes broadcast about the book The Premonition by Michael Lewis. [18] She is one of the experts profiled in the book, [5] [10] and named by Lewis as "one of the people who saw the real danger of the virus before the rest of the country did," according to NPR. [19]
In August 2020, she co-founded The Public Health Company, [5] [1] which has created software to assist the public health community and businesses with managing the risks of infectious disease. [20] She has also continued to publicly offer her expert opinion about COVID-19 responses [21] [22] and responding to pandemics generally. [23]