State Department of Health officials Loretta J. Fuddy and Dr. Paul Effler have been promoted, Director Bruce Anderson has announced. State Department of Health
promotes 2 officialsStar-Bulletin staff
Fuddy, former chief of the Family Health Services Division, has been appointed deputy department director for administration. She has been acting director since August.
Effler has been named acting chief of the Communicable Disease Division, succeeding Dr. Philip Bruno.
Bruno held the position from November 1998 to Jan. 16, when he left to join the Veterans Administration Clinic at Tripler Army Medical Center.
Effler has been chief of the Epidemiology Division since 1994 and state epidemiologist since 1997. He led investigations and control activities for the recent dengue fever outbreak.
Besides trying to contain diseases across the state, he is responsible for supervising the immunization and hepatitis prevention programs and bioterrorist activities, among other duties.
Effler also is a public health officer in the 322nd Civil Affairs Brigade, U.S. Army Reserves.
He served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during 1991-1993 and has been a medical epidemiology consultant for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees in Swaziland and Ethiopia and for the World Health Organization in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Philippines.
His international experience also includes clinical training in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Fuddy has directed and worked on maternal and child-health programs and related activities since joining the Health Department in 1975.
She headed the Maternal and Child Health Branch from 1986 to 1987 and again from 1990 until August 1999, when she took over the Family Health Services Division.
In that division, she has been responsible for Child Health, Children with Special Health Needs, Women, Infant and Children's branches.
Other duties include planning and implementing a federal maternal and child-health block grant and assessing primary-care needs and services for uninsured and vulnerable populations.
She also has been responsible for legislation, quality assurance, policy development and evaluation of programs providing prevention and early intervention services for women, children and families.
Fuddy was a social worker at Catholic Social Service in Honolulu before going to the Health Department.
Stephen G. Karel, former executive director of the Pacific Island Health Offices Association, has succeeded Fuddy as head of the Family Health Services Division.