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Dr. Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s health commissioner, will leave his position on Friday — months earlier than expected, according to city officials.
Until a permanent replacement is identified, Dr. Michelle Morse, the city’s chief medical officer, will serve as interim health commissioner, city officials said.
In late September, Vasan announced that he would resign early next year to focus on his family and continue his clinical work and teaching. His family obligations have since become more pressing, he said in a statement announcing his accelerated departure.
“As noted in the initial announcement of my resignation, it is time for the needs of my family to take precedence, despite how much I love this job, this work, and this agency,” he said. “Those needs have taken on greater urgency, and so I have decided to move up my departure date to this Friday, Oct. 18.”
The abrupt shift in leadership at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — one of the largest public health agencies in the world — comes at a turbulent time for City Hall. Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal corruption charges and many of his top aides have been targeted by federal investigations.
Vasan has not been a target of those investigations. But in his premature departure, he joins many other top officials who have suddenly left the administration in recent weeks.
Adams has insisted that the departures reflect the normal churn of government work. He often stresses that there are hundreds of thousands of municipal employees and that his administration has a “deep bench” from which to call up replacements. But City Hall is widely perceived to be in a state of crisis and Adams himself faces a clamor of calls to resign.
Adams said in a press conference Tuesday that Vasan had been “very forthright” in communicating that he might need to leave his post earlier than anticipated.
“He has a personal urgency that he thought he could hold out longer, but he wants to address, and I respect that,” Adams said. “My theme and my rule is family first.”
Adams added that Vasan “went through a lot” during his tenure, including needing police protection when anti-mask demonstrators converged on his home to threaten him in 2022.
Vasan has led the Health Department for nearly three years. He was appointed in late 2021, as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 surged in the city. Under Vasan’s leadership, the Health Department successfully controlled the city’s 2022 mpox outbreak and launched “HealthyNYC,” a wide-ranging initiative to improve New Yorkers’ life expectancy.
Adams praised Vasan’s service in a statement Tuesday, emphasizing his work to guide New York through the pandemic and improve mental health care for young people.
“While we are sorry to see him leave, we wholeheartedly respect his decision to prioritize the needs of his family and the greater urgency that those needs demand,” he said. “The department will not miss a beat as Dr. Michelle Morse steps in as interim commissioner as our national search for a permanent replacement continues.”
Vasan said that he had worked with other top officials on a transition plan for the Health Department that “ensures steadiness.” He also praised Morse, saying, “I have every confidence in her talent and ability to lead us forward over the coming weeks, and to execute on key initiatives and policies that are well underway.”
Morse became the Health Department’s first-ever chief medical officer in early 2021, charged with leading the agency’s work to bridge public health and health care. She also serves as deputy commissioner for the agency’s Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness.
An internal medicine hospitalist, Morse has earned national acclaim for her work to end racist algorithms in clinical medicine, including by spearheading an effort that reduced wait times for kidney transplants for Black patients.
Vasan’s premature departure mirrors the abrupt retirement of David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor.
In late September, the same week that Vasan announced his intent to resign, Banks said he would retire at the end of the year. But about a week later, Banks announced that he would retire months earlier than planned, Chalkbeat New York reported.
A new schools chief will take the helm on Wednesday. Two days later, Vasan will serve his last day as health commissioner.
Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org .
