Mary Bassett, state health commissioner, to leave job Jan. 1

ALBANY — State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett, the internationally accomplished physician who accepted the job just over a year ago as the state battled the COVID-19 pandemic, is leaving the position to return to academic pursuits.

Bassett’s resignation was submitted Friday and is effective Jan. 1.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Bassett provided leadership “during one of the most challenging public health eras of our lifetimes.

“Throughout her time in my administration — from the onset of the Omicron variant and through mpox and polio outbreaks — she has worked tirelessly to keep New Yorkers informed, healthy and safe,” Hochul said.

Bassett, 70, was appointed health commissioner on Sept. 29, 2021. She will return to her work at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

“This was a very difficult decision,” Bassett said in a statement. “I have tremendous admiration for the work our staff has done during a very difficult year responding to COVID, mpox, polio and the day-to-day challenges of protecting New Yorkers’ health.”

She said she is leaving so the next commissioner could serve a full four-year term in the job.

It’s not uncommon for commissioners and department heads to leave an administration as it starts a new term. Hochul was elected in November to her first full, four-year term. She had hired Bassett as she had to quickly assemble an administration after the unexpected resignation of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in August 2021.

“Though I am moving back to Massachusetts, I will always be a New Yorker,” said Bassett, who completed her residency at Harlem Hospital Center.

Sean Clouston, an associate professor of public health at Stony Brook University, said Bassett is an “exceptional epidemiologist” and was surprised she was leaving after such a short time in the top spot.

“During her tenure, the state Department of Health maintained a commendable level of transparency about its actions, and it has been a bastion of good scientifically sound information to help protect residents in tumultuous times,” Clouston said. “She has run a tight ship and provided support where needed. I look forward to seeing these efforts be continued under the incoming commissioner.”

In Albany, Bassett sometimes addressed reporters directly and at length in briefings on the COVID, measles and monkey pox or “mpox” outbreaks. That’s unusual in Albany where governors traditionally dominate news conferences and make announcements.

The graduate of Harvard and Columbia worked at the University of Zimbabwe from 1985 to 2002 and later was the program director for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s African Health Initiative. She was appointed New York City health commissioner in 2014 where she helped lead the city’s response to the Ebola virus. In 2016 she won the Frank A. Calderone Prize, considered a top honor in public health.

Bassett was hired when the state Health Department under fire after former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was accused of providing inaccurate records about the deaths from COVID-19 among nursing home residents.

Hochul has since ordered a review of the state’s response to the pandemic under Cuomo and her own administration.