Kathleen E. Toomey, M.D., M.P.H., was appointed Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health by Governor Brian Kemp in March 2019. As commissioner, Dr. Toomey oversees 159 county health departments in 18 health districts and various public health programs. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Toomey served as Director of the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness leading the department’s transition to become the Fulton County Board of Health and continuing as district health director until December 2018.
An epidemiologist and board-certified family practitioner, Dr. Toomey’s career in public health is long and distinguished, holding key leadership positions with the State of Georgia and both national and international leadership positions with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She served as the CDC’s Country Director in Botswana. In addition to other leadership positions with the CDC, Dr. Toomey previously served as the Director of the Division of Public Health with the Georgia Department of Human Resources
Dr. Toomey earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Smith College. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied indigenous healing practices in Peru. , Dr. Toomey became a change immediately after leaving school while working as a new doctor working in tiny Kotzebue, Alaska, in the early 1980s, Her work developing a screening program and treating patients roughly 1,000 miles away from the nearest major hospital inspired the 1990s television program “Northern Exposure.
Subsequently, she earned her M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Harvard University. In 1985, Dr. Toomey was selected as a Pew Health Policy Research Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. While in San Francisco, she served on committees looking at the initial cases of emergent HIV.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Kemp praised Dr. Toomey’s skills, contributions, and leadership. “Dr. Toomey is a world-renowned epidemiologist with a distinguished career in public health through her work as a physician, researcher, and expert in her field. Over the years, she has earned a stellar reputation.” Gov. Kemp credits Toomey with providing sound counsel when determining matters such as ordering shelter-in-place and determining when it was safe to end the order.
