New Orange County Health Officer Hired By OC Supervisors
ORANGE COUNTY, CA — In unanimous vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors yesterday, Clayton Chau, M.D., Ph.D., was selected as County Health Officer. Dr. Chau will serve as the Director of the OC Health Care Agency (HCA) as well as County Health Officer.
He was hired on as the HCA’s Director on May 4 and subsequently assumed the role as Acting County Health Officer on June 9, following the resignation of then Orange County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick.
Quick exited the Orange County Health Care Agency amid a firestorm of the global coronavirus pandemic, and the personal fallout from her strict face covering mandate. Chau stepped in as acting County Health Officer, continuing the quest to see a unified and masked Orange County, as well as the implementation of by zip code data transparency for the county's coronavirus statistics.
In the past months, he has overseen the installation of new coronavirus testing facilities in Anaheim and Costa Mesa, as well as supporting a new #positivevibes campaign to promote mask-wearing while maintaining an "Orange County" frame of mind.
Dr. Chau worked for the HCA’s Behavioral Health Services team from 1999-2012 and was most recently Chief Clinical and Strategy Officer for Mind OC, the not-for-profit created to support the advancement of Be Well OC.
In addition to his time at Mind OC, Dr. Chau was previous employed by Providence Health System, the third largest health system in the country, as the Regional Executive Medical Director of the Institute of Mental Health and Wellness, Southern California Region. Dr. Chau was also appointed by the 23rd U.S.
Secretary of Health and Human Services serving on the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee.
His past positions include Senior Medical Director for Health Services at L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest nonprofit health plan in the nation, responsible for behavioral health, care management, utilization management, and disease management. In that capacity, Dr. Chau was actively involving in the development of the Los Angeles County Whole Person Care Program. He was also the Co-Principal Investigator for a multi-year Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Innovation grant in Transforming Clinical Practice.
Dr. Chau received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Chelsea University in 2004, and his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1994. He completed his psychiatry residency at the University of California, Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley followed by a fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health in psychoneuroimmunology focusing on substance use disorder and HIV.
Additionally, he has served as an Associate Clinical Professor and Lecturer at a variety of renowned academic institutions including the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Chau has conducted international trainings in the areas of health care integration, health care system reform, cultural competency and mental health policy.
This article originally appeared on the Los Alamitos-Seal Beach Patch
