WASHINGTON (TIP): The office of Governor Lamont announced on 26 July the nomination of Manisha Juthani as Connecticut’s Public Health Commissioner.

Dr. Juthani, an Indian American, is an associate professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. She will succeed Dr. Deidre Gifford to lead the Public Health Department, as he is being promoted to the duty of Senior Advisor to the Governor for Health and Human Services.

Juthani praised the Governor and Dr. Gifford’s leadership in helping Connecticut fight the coronavirus pandemic and said that she will continue with those efforts.

Under Dr Gifford’s leadership, I look forward to continuing their efforts related to COVID-19, mental health, health equity, health disparities, and access to healthcare going forward.

Dr Juthani in the press release.

She studied at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University after completing a BA degree in Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania. Having been trained at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, she worked as chief resident at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. She joined Yale in 2002 as part of a fellowship training and thereafter started working there as a faculty member. In the press release, Governor Ned Lamont praised Juthani to have been recommended by “top experts” and that her experience with infectious diseases will benefit Connecticut’s response to the pandemic. He also stated that Connecticut has been doing good with the vaccinations, however there is a need for sound policies to keep the rate of transmission low.