San Antonio’s new health director is coming from Massachusetts

After multiple leadership changes over the past year, San Antonio Metropolitan Health District has a new director.

City manager Erik Walsh announced the hiring of Claude A. Jacob, who was selected through a national search. For the last 14 years, Jacob served as the Chief Public Health Officer at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Mass.

“I am excited to welcome Claude to San Antonio to serve as the new Director of Metro Health,” Walsh said in a statement, “I am confident that Claude will provide excellent leadership to Metro Health. He will continue to work to promote health equity and education for our residents. I’d also like to thank Dr. Colleen Bridger for continuing to serve the City during this transition.”

According to the announcement, Jacob’s experience in public health leadership spans more than 20 years. He also has management experience with a focus on operations, program design and service delivery.

In his latest role, Jacob was responsible for implementing new programming, working on national public health accreditation for the health department and leading COVID-19 emergency response for a population of 118,000.

“As we have seen over the past year, public health plays a critical role in the day to day lives of every person. San Antonio has a wealth of public health programs, innovative approaches and services available to its residents,” Jacob said in a statement. “I look forward to strengthening and expanding those services in order to address the conditions where all can be healthy in San Antonio.”

Jacob’s first day is July 6. Assistant City Manager Dr. Colleen Bridger, who worked as interim director since Dawn Emerick resigned from the role last July, will continue to serve as the incident commander of the pandemic response during the transition, the city said in a release.