The Parnell administration has named a replacement for two top health officials, one of whom said she was pushed out this summer by former Gov. Sarah Palin.

Ward Hurlburt, a physician and 32-year public health veteran, will assume the joint position of state chief medical officer and director of the Division of Public Health, according to a press release from Health and Social Services Commissioner Bill Hogan.

Hurlburt is a former chief of surgery for the Alaska Native Medical Center, a hospital administrator in Dillingham and a deputy director of the Alaska Area Native Health Service. He left Alaska in 1993 when he retired from the Indian Health Service, then moved back this June.

While Outside, he worked as an official and consultant for private managed-care organizations in Washington, Utah and Oregon, the press release says.

Hurlburt replaces Beverly Wooley as public health director. Wooley said in July that she was forced out of office because Palin felt she wasn't in step on social issues. According to Wooley, the key source of tension was legislation that would have required girls under age 17 to get parental consent for an abortion.

Wooley said at the time that she was prepared to follow the governor's wishes and not let her personal views interfere with department policy.

But Hogan asked Wooley to resign on June 1, saying she wasn't aligned with the governor on policy questions. She refused to resign and was dismissed.

According to Wooley, she was told the dismissal was not performance-based.

Hurlburt also replaces Jay Butler, who resigned as chief medical officer about the same time after declining an offer to assume Wooley's job along with his own. Butler, a physician, returned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he worked before taking the state job.

Butler's job didn't exist before he got it. The department has said budget concerns support combining the two jobs into one position.

Hurlburt starts his new job Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT