As the search continues for replacement of Dr. Thomas Locke, the Clallam County Board of Health has appointed Dr. Jeanette Stehr-Green as Clallam County Health Officer on an interim basis.

Stehr-Green is a medical epidemiologist and has spent many years in the practice of public health with a focus on infectious diseases and outbreak investigation. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Rice University and a medical degree from University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio. She was trained in internal medicine at Stanford University and through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Stehr-Green and her husband, Paul, have lived in Clallam County since 1998. She is a volunteer at Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics free clinic in Port Angeles and Clallam County Master Gardeners. Last summer she helped create and run Growing Healthy, a project designed to help people with or at risk for diabetes eat healthier and get more exercise through gardening.

A member of the Board of Health since 2003, Stehr-Green will take a leave of absence from membership on the board while serving in her interim health officer role.

The county health board named Stehr-Green the interim director at its Feb. 17 meeting.

Recruitment for the position of Clallam County Health Officer is on-going. An interim appointment allows the Board of Health to continue its search to fill permanently the position.

After 27 years as the health officer for Clallam County, Locke announced in December that he was resigning effective Jan. 31.