DeKalb Health Director Headed To White House For New Job

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — DeKalb County Board of Health's longtime district health director is leaving the Peach State for the White House.

Dr. Sandra Elizabeth Ford, who has been the county's health director since 2005, will join the Domestic Policy Council led by Ambassador Susan Rice, DeKalb commissioners said during Tuesday's board meeting. Her exact role is special assistant to the president for public health and science in the Domestic Policy Council.

Ford's last day is slated for April 23. Dr. Sandra Valenciano, who serves as the medical director of the board of health's Community Health & Prevention Services division, will be the interim health director.

"This is so bittersweet," Ford said through tears during Tuesday's DeKalb Board of Commissioners meeting. "You can't leave if no one will follow you, and the folks that we have here are extraordinary beyond belief and they allow me to shine in their reflection ... I accept the accolades, but it's the agency that does the work."

Ford, a board-certified pediatrician, earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford University, and both her medical and master's degrees from Howard University, according to her biography. She took over as DeKalb County's district health director in February 2005, but left in 2008 to be the acting director of the Georgia Department of Community Health's Division of Public Health during the agency's reorganization.

Ford returned to the county in 2009. She also served as Fulton County's interim health director in 2019 and 2020 while she kept her role in DeKalb.

“This lady is going to a place of great need, and what they will find out is what we already know: that you have been gifted by God to answer this call to serve,” DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond said during the meeting.

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