Mandy Cohen, the face of North Carolina’s COVID response, to leave health department

Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and a fixture of the state’s coronavirus pandemic response, is stepping down from her job.

Gov. Roy Cooper will name Kody Kinsley, who currently serves as chief deputy secretary of the department, as Cohen’s replacement, his office said in a news release Tuesday announcing her departure. Kinsley will start Jan. 1.

ABC11, The News & Observer’s news partner, first reported that Cohen will resign.

Cohen has not said where she’s going next, but the governor’s release said she will spend more time with her family while “exploring new opportunities to carry on her work improving the health and well-being of communities.”

Cooper held a news conference about COVID-19 Tuesday afternoon with Cohen in attendance.

Cohen has served as the state health department’s secretary since 2017 and is part of Cooper’s Cabinet. She has been by his side for countless news briefings since the pandemic first reached the Old North State in March of 2020 and has been known in part for repeating the guidelines at the pandemic’s peak to “Wear, Wait, Wash,” known as the “three Ws” of safety precautions.

In 2020, Cohen was also named The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Year for her work on the state’s coronavirus response.

“Mandy Cohen has shown extraordinary leadership during her tenure and she has worked every day during this pandemic to help keep North Carolinians healthy and safe,” Cooper said in a news release, adding that Kinsley would “continue the strong legacy of competence, effectiveness and efficiency as he takes over as Secretary.”

Later in the day, Cooper told reporters during the news briefing on COVID-19 that he and Cohen had “been in the trenches together” and he would miss her. He said Cohen’s work during the pandemic has “saved countless lives.”

“I deeply appreciate your service and your steady hand in times of crisis,” Cooper said to Cohen.

He said that North Carolina owes her a debt of gratitude.

“You’ve been such a blessing to our state,” he said.

Cohen thanked Cooper for his “steadfast leadership” and said she was proud of the “extraordinary work” of her team at DHHS.

“While it’s hard to step away, it’s the right time for me personally and the right time for our team,” she said. Cohen did not say what her next plans were, but that she hoped to stay in North Carolina.

Cohen worked in DC

Cohen, an internal medicine physician, attended Cornell University as an undergraduate, graduated from Yale Medical School and earned a master’s in public health at Harvard, where she concentrated on health care leadership.

Before coming to North Carolina, she worked in the Obama administration as chief operating officer and chief of staff at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Multiple times a week during the height of the pandemic in 2020, and frequently in 2021, Cohen and Cooper have spoken to reporters and to the cameras in COVID-19 response press briefings held at the Emergency Operations Center, live-streamed into people’s homes and workplaces.

Cohen received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March 2021 alongside the Rev. William Barber, and has consistently pushed for everyone to get vaccinated, and now, booster shots, too.

Dr. Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health and dean of the UNC School of Medicine, said in an emailed statement to The N&O that the state has been “extremely fortunate” to have Cohen’s leadership over the past five years, especially throughout the pandemic.

“She has demonstrated strong and steady leadership in helping guide North Carolina through this crisis. Her passion for helping others was an important factor in reducing the impact COVID has had on our state,” Burks said.

“I have appreciated her wise advice many times during the past two years,” he said.

Cooper’s pandemic team

Another key member of Cooper’s COVID-19 response team, Mike Sprayberry, retired this summer as executive director of of the state’s emergency management division. He worked with Cohen before and during the pandemic.

“I knew she was a force to be reckoned with back during Hurricane Florence,” Sprayberry said in an interview in 2020.

“I’m proud of her to be the lead in this response. I think she knows what she’s doing. I think she’s very intentional about her approach. She can make a course correction about moving forward,” Sprayberry said then.

Another Cooper official from the COVID-19 response team, Department of Public Safety Secretary Erik Hooks, left in July.

Cohen has been a major proponent of Cooper’s priority to expand Medicaid in the state. While it was part of final state budget negotiations this fall, it was not in the final budget because of a lack of House Republican support, according to House Speaker Tim Moore.

Cohen was also part of the team that launched Medicaid managed care, also known as Medicaid transformation.

Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, said in a statement that Cohen’s “leadership throughout her tenure at the DHHS has helped our state navigate turbulent times.”

“She made herself available to legislators to answer questions and kept us informed about issues facing the department,” Berger said in the statement, which also credited her with successfully implementing Medicaid transformation.

Legislative Democratic leaders also shared their appreciation for Cohen, via social media. Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue of Raleigh tweeted that Cohen has “led our state through unprecedented challenges, and we are better off for it.” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives of Chatham County tweeted that the state has been lucky to have Cohen at the helm, especially during the past two years.

Stayed in NC

In November 2020, Cohen’s name was floated by national media outlets as a possible Biden administration appointee.

“I am focused here on making sure the folks in North Carolina stay safe, particularly around the holidays, and I’m going to keep focused on that,” Cohen told reporters at the time. She said she “would be honored” to continue serving in North Carolina or in the federal government, “if that is an opportunity.”

Cooper said at the time that Cohen was “doing an amazing job here. We are fortunate she agreed to come and join my administration in 2017, but I think she is keeping her head down and doing what she needs to do to move our state forward,” he said.

Cooper said in 2020 he could see why she would be considered because of her handling of the state’s coronavirus response.

“Anybody would be fortunate to have Dr. Cohen, and of course I want her right here,” Cooper said.

Cohen, who is a mother of two, regularly wears a necklace that is the Hebrew word “chai,” which means “life.”

Cohen told The N&O in a 2020 interview that it was a gift from her mother when she got into medical school. It has both cultural and personal family significance to her, she said, and she wears it every day.

This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Mandy Cohen, the face of North Carolina’s COVID response, to leave health department."

Lucille Sherman

The News & Observer

Lucille Sherman is a state politics reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. She previously worked as a national data and investigations reporter for Gannett. Using the secure, encrypted Signal app, you can reach Lucille at 405-471-7979.