North Carolina public health officer hired to run Spokane Regional Health District
Danny Scalise II is the new administrator for the Spokane Regional Health District.
SRHD’s health board unanimously approved a finalized contract with Scalise Wednesday.
A county health officer from North Carolina, Scalise has extensive public health experience on the East Coast.
Originally from West Virginia, he served as a senior adviser to former Democratic Govs. Joe Manchin and Earl Ray Tomblin. In that role, he oversaw the distribution of $1.8 billion of federal stimulus money to the state. He went on to lead the West Virginia State Medical Association.
He has served as administrator to the Fayette County Health Department in West Virginia. He most recently served as public health director for Burke County Public Health. Set along the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Burke County has more than 85,000 residents.
Scalise holds public health and business administration master’s degrees from West Virginia University.
Spokane Regional Health District board chair Michael Cathcart said he was “very impressed” with Scalise.
“He understands fiscal prudence at a time when we have potentially widespread budget challenges,” said Cathcart, a Spokane city councilman.
Scalise will join the health district at a time when public health norms and policies are being challenged and changed at the highest levels of the federal government.
He also joins a local agency that was roiled in controversy when former administrator Amelia Clark left the district in 2022 amid fallout from the 2020 firing of health officer Bob Lutz, and former administrator Alicia Thompson was fired last year because of unnamed performance concerns. Since that most recent ouster, the district has been led by interim administrators Ray Byrne and Kim Kramarz.
The health board voted for the hiring at an online meeting Wednesday morning after holding an executive session, a private part of a government meeting that is not held in public. When the board voted in public, it voted to hire “Candidate A” for the position, but no board members said his name or made any comment about the hire.
The health district revealed Scalise’s name later in the day.