Richmond and Henrico Health Districts name new health director
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After a three month vacancy, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts soon will have a new health director.
Elaine Perry will join RHHD as director July 10, allowing acting director Melissa Viray to move back to her previous role as deputy director.
Perry is a board-certified preventive medicine physician who comes to RHHD with public health experience at the local, state, and federal levels with the Virginia Department of Health, the U.S. Navy and within pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, she served as interim health director in VDH’s Central Shenandoah Health District. She also has worked as a physician for Loudoun County Health District and as the director of Peninsula Health District.
During her time at Peninsula Health District, she was instrumental in starting the Coalition for Obesity Prevention-Peninsula and served as president of the Board of Directors of Access Partnership, a newly formed non-profit organization working on access to health care for the Hampton Roads region. While in the U.S. Navy, Perry served as the senior medical officer at two Navy medical clinics. She also worked in the pharmaceutical industry at Merck for more than 12 years and has served as a consultant on vaccine safety with the Food and Drug Administration.
Perry graduated from Penn State with a B.S. in biology and honors in microbiology, then graduated from Dartmouth and Brown medical schools, before completing a pediatrics internship at the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth. She completed a residency in preventive medicine and her master’s degree in epidemiology and preventive medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
"Richmond City and Henrico County are diverse communities with rich histories and culture and a robust network of community organizations... still, the communities experience complex health inequities," Perry said. "I'm looking forward to joining RHHD to continue the work towards eliminating disparities and supporting the health of all residents. I am thankful to work with such dynamic teams and am grateful to Dr. Viray for her leadership and warm welcome."
In her return to her role as deputy director, Viray will continue to expand the data and epidemiology infrastructure for both infectious and noninfectious diseases at RHHD, as well as provide ongoing support to RHHD’s clinical teams. Before starting her role at RHHD in 2017, Viray served as the deputy state epidemiologist for the Hawaii Department of Health. She also previously worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemic intelligence service officer and as a medical epidemiologist.
“I am feeling energized and excited knowing that Dr. Elaine Perry will be joining us at RHHD in a couple of months,” Viray said. “I’m eager to partner with her and the rest of our staff to build health equity across our communities… I’m also looking forward to being able to devote more of my time and attention to building up our epidemiology and data programs that will be critical to informing and supporting our work in addressing Richmond and Henrico’s pressing public health issues.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic exemplified how critical the health districts are to the health, safety, and well-being of Henrico’s residents,” said Henrico County Manager. “We have seen exceptional leadership across RHHD and believe Dr. Perry will be an incredible asset in maintaining our health districts’ ability to respond to public health crises like COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic.”
