Summit County, UTAH (May 4, 2021) — After 30 years in public health and nearly 11 years as the Summit County Health Director, Dr. Rich Bullough is retiring. The announcement, made during the May 3 Summit County Board of Health meeting, is effective August 2021.
“Being the Health Officer for Summit County, Utah, has been the greatest honor of my life, and certainly the highest achievement in my nearly 30 years in Public Health,” Bullough said. “I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to be part of our COVID-19 response and was not about to move on to the next phase of my life until the pandemic was well along the continuum of being controlled in Summit County. We have made remarkable progress towards knocking this disease back in our community and towards a safe, gradual return to normal.”
Bullough is a longtime resident of Summit County, and a Utah native. Before accepting the position of Health Director in Summit County, Bullough worked in multiple public health roles including as director of Centers for Disease Control funded programs for the Utah Department of Health, as Research Fellow for the National Institutes of Health, and as adjunct professor and instructor at the University of Utah. Since accepting the position as the Director of the Summit County Health Department in September 2010, Bullough has been a proud member of what he views as the “best team of Public Health professionals in the state.”
“I cannot fully express how rewarding it has been to serve in the critically important work of public health,” Bullough said. “Public Health is about a lot more than pandemic response, it is a foundation of equity in society. I want to encourage our community to continue to support the critical work of public health. Clean air, water, food, and important behavioral and clinical programs are for everyone. A strong Public Health Department will help us continue down the path of achieving equity in Summit County.”
The Summit County Board of Health is considering a succession plan for the Health Director position in the coming weeks.
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Media Contact
Derek Siddoway
Communication & Public Engagement Director
Summit County
dsiddoway@summitcounty.org
Media Line: 435-333-1503