Sejal Hathi, director of the Oregon Health Authority, is stepping down Aug. 1.<\/p>\n
Gov. Tina Kotek announced the \u201cleadership transition\u201d Thursday morning. \u201cSejal Hathi has decided to step down from her position as director to focus on family, personal priorities, and the next chapter of life and service,\u201d Kotek\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Former Oregon Department of Human Services director Fariborz Pakseresht will begin as interim director of the OHA on July 6, at which point Kotek says he will \u201ccollaborate with Dr. Hathi on a thoughtful transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The OHA is a major agency. Powered by a $20 billion-plus annual budget, its responsibilities range from public health coordination to regulating hospitals to managing Oregon State Hospital, the state\u2019s highest-level psychiatric institution. It also runs the Oregon Health Plan, which provides health benefits to 1 in 3 Oregonians.<\/p>\n
Hathi began her tenure heading OHA in 2024. She was in her early 30s, bearing a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 filled with prestigious institutions from Massachusetts General Hospital to Stanford University to the White House. She served briefly as a deputy health commissioner in New Jersey before Kotek brought her to Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all had very high hopes that she would bring innovation and compelling policies and ideas and relationships,\u201d Lines for Life CEO Dwight Holton said by phone Thursday morning. But \u201cit just didn\u2019t play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holton added that there was a \u201cvery strong need for the governor to make the change,\u201d and he was glad the reins were going to a steady hand\u2014Pakseresht\u2014who knows the state well.<\/p>\n
In a 9 am email to OHA staff, Kotek framed the separation as Hathi\u2019s decision and thanked her for \u201cher steady work to strengthen health care and Oregon\u2019s public health system during her time with us.\u201d Four minutes later, Hathi delivered a note of her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am proud of what we have advanced together,\u201d she wrote, citing the agency\u2019s work expanding health care coverage, including by widening eligibility for Oregon Health Plan benefits, and establishing the West Coast Health Alliance, a response to changing Trump administration vaccine policies. She also touted the agency\u2019s work expanding residential behavioral health capacity, and \u201cworking to stabilize and prepare Oregon\u2019s Medicaid program amid seismic federal change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hathi faced substantive challenges. Oregon\u2019s primary care wait times are long. Its mental health outcomes rank among the worst in the nation. Health care costs are skyrocketing. And she did not always take accountability when things went sideways on her watch.<\/p>\n
Oregon State Hospital, the state\u2019s highest-level psychiatric institution, has faced much scrutiny in recent years over staffing problems, questionable caretaking practices, and a high-profile patient death\u2014and, it has churned through interim leader after interim leader, including under Hathi. In a recent hearing<\/a> before lawmakers, Hathi tried to distance herself from the hospital\u2019s problems, saying they were \u201cconfusing to all of us,\u201d and insisting the operation was shaping up.<\/p>\n And despite Hathi\u2019s publicized listening tours<\/a>, some questioned early on whether Oregon had her full attention. Confusion and skepticism<\/a> abounded when, in late 2024, she accepted an unpaid job at Stanford University Hospital\u2014outside work she said she would complete in her free time.<\/p>\n