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Indiana Health Commissioner Has No Plans To Leave State Government Anytime Soon

Lauren Chapman/IPB News

Indiana’s top state health officials say they have no plans to leave their posts any time soon.

A few top Holcomb administration officials have left state government in recent months, notably Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Dr. Jennifer Sullivan. That’s fairly common as an administration transitions from a first term to a second, as Holcomb’s did.

But State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said she’s not going anywhere – despite being "worn out" as COVID-19 surges again.

"It’s hard to kind of get geared up again and get the team fired up. I saw it on the faces of all my colleagues and I hear it across the state in our public health people," Box said. "And I really hear it from our hospital systems that are really short on staffing because they have lost so many individual nurses and respiratory therapists and medical assistants because they’ve just said, 'I can’t do this anymore.'"

Indiana Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver echoed Box’s sentiment and joked that Box wouldn’t let her leave.

Box and Weaver have been the two most visible members of Holcomb's administration – behind the governor himself – throughout the pandemic. Weaver has served as the state's "vaccine czar," coordinating Indiana's distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.