Just six months after she hired in as the county’s highest paid employee, St. Joseph County Health Officer Dr. Diana Purushotham is calling it quits.
It wasn’t yet clear why, but on Tuesday Dr. Diana Purushotham gave county commissioners her resignation. A spokeswoman said Purushotham will not speak publicly about her resignation until the March 20 board of health meeting.
The all-Republican county commissioners hired her in July to succeed Dr. Bob Einterz, who had quit in March 2023, citing continued harassment by Republican commissioners and county council members. Purushotham came to the job with no public health experience, at a time when the department is administering millions of dollars in new state money aimed at boosting Indiana’s dismal public health rankings.
Soon after she was hired, Purushotham told WVPE she was a native of Toronto who came to South Bend in 2019, following the career of her husband, Dr. Anatoliy Rudin. They met in medical school in Chicago and also worked at Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic together.
It was unclear whether Rudin might be on the move again professionally. He has most recently served as chairman of the surgery department at Elkhart General Hospital, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Receiving a salary of $250,000, Purushotham is the county’s highest-paid employee. The next-highest last year was Human Resources Director Kortney Mullins, who was paid $193,000, followed by Sheriff Bill Redman who received $170,000 in pay.
