Dr. Renia Dotson will serve as Mississippi’s new state epidemiologist and Theresa Kittle will serve as the deputy state epidemiologist, the Mississippi State Department of Health announced in a Tuesday press release. Dotson is the first Black woman to assume the role of state epidemiologist.
Dotson will replace interim state epidemiologist Dr. Kathryn Taylor, who took over in 2023 when former state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers resigned after leading the state through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The deputy state epidemiologist position was vacant before Kittle took the reins.
The state epidemiologist is responsible for watching cases and trends of reportable and chronic diseases; investigating disease outbreaks; finding ways to stop or prevent outbreaks, and reporting causes of death and trends to medical experts.
“I’m very grateful that Dr. Dotson has agreed to brush off her (Master of Public Health) and take on this task,” Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said. “I have tremendous confidence in our new epidemiology team. They recently quickly contained a salmonella outbreak and norovirus outbreak, which showed tremendous teamwork. They’re doing an amazing job safeguarding the health of Mississippians.”
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Dotson most recently served as the director of the Center for Public Health Transformation at MSDH in 2024. She practiced as a rectal and colon surgeon for 23 years, primarily at the Delta Regional Medical Center. She served as the chief of staff, chief of surgery, and regional and institutional medical director of trauma at the center before her tenure at MSDH.
The new state epidemiologist is the chair of the Board of Regents at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., and serves on the Mississippi Board of Nursing, the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure, the Mississippi State Medical Association Board of Trustees and the Office of Mississippi Physician Workforce Advisory Board.
Kittle has worked for MSDH as an epidemiologist for 14 years and implemented the disease surveillance and electronic laboratory reporting systems while serving as the director of the Office of Epidemiology.
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