HUDSON — Victoria McGahan is the new public director of the Columbia County Department of Health, taking over the reins from Jack Mabb.
McGahan boasts an impressive background in various health fields. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from SUNY Cortland in 2013, and a masters of science degree in community health from SUNY Cortland in 2015.
She also holds graduate certificates in public health fundamentals and principles through the New York State Public Health Leaders of Tomorrow program from the University at Albany in 2019.
Prior to her accepting the office of department of health director, McGahan worked as a public health educator for the Columbia County Department of Health from 2013 to 2015.
“I’ve been here for about a month now as the new public health director,” McGahan said Friday. “I’m still getting acclimated to the position. “This is my eighth year with the health department.”
McGahan reflected on working closely with Mabb, who served as public health director since 2015, and all that she learned from him.
“I worked very closely with Jack for close to eight years, and I learned a lot from him,” she said. “I can’t speak for Jack, but from a perspective, Jack was very easy to work with and I hope to be very easy to work with in our partnerships with other agencies. Those are extremely important to the work that we do. I hope to continue and build and foster those relationships.”
McGahan, who is the first post-pandemic Columbia County health department director, has an important role. She is responsible for developing and administering public health programs, making recommendations to and consulting with the Columbia County Board of Supervisors on general policies and procedures, goals, proposals and methods of service delivery for public health and clinical care programs.
“Personally, I always knew I wanted to help people,” McGahan said. “I wasn’t into the blood and guts of clinical work. I have so much respect for people who can do that. When I came across the concept and the field of public health, I saw it as a way to help as many people as possible through policy and public education. The reason why I came into this field was to try and help as many people as possible on a broader scale.”
Columbia County continues to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic and its three years of after-effects. According to the weekly statements provided by the Columbia County Department of Health, there are 46 new cases of COVID-19 among county residents so far this week. Ten people are hospitalized, with one in the intensive care unit. Another COVID-related death has been reported, bringing to 174 the total since the beginning of the pandemic.
“There are a lot of things that we are going be facing in public health in the next few years,” McGahan said. “One of those things are post-pandemic issues such as people dealing with long-term COVID effects. I think supporting our most vulnerable such as children and the elderly is going to be something that we will have to continue to do. We saw our overdoses skyrocket through the pandemic, which is so much higher than we want it to be. Ideally, we want it to be at zero. We have to support those folks and continue to support those programs that are geared toward helping people with substance abuse.”