Gov. Kate Brown picked Dawn Jagger as her new senior health policy adviser, as Tina Edlund is retiring in March.
Jagger currently serves as the chief of staff and director of external relations at the Oregon Health Authority. She’ll step into her new position March 9.
“Dawn was at the core of the small team of trusted leaders I brought to OHA when I started here more than two years ago,” OHA Director Pat Allen said in an email. “Our immediate goal was to help settle things down, solve our most pressing problems and rebuild with our partners, legislators and stakeholders. Dawn has been essential to the progress we’ve made on all these fronts.”
Allen credited Jagger with working with Oregon State Hospital Superintendent Dolly Matteucci on an action plan to resolve a crisis last summer, when counties were “flooding OSH with homeless people who were mentally ill.”
Jagger also helped OHA achieve its policy goals in the past legislative session, secure sustainable funding for Medicaid, expand behavioral health services and funds for public health modernization and help reduce the burden on the state hospital from counties sending people who don’t need hospital-level care, Allen said.
As he also noted, Edlund has been a “driving force in Oregon health care,” helping to launch the coordinated care organizations to manage Medicaid patients.
“As the governor’s senior health policy adviser, she led to process to put Oregon’s Medicaid on firm financial footing for the next six years and she ensured CCO 2.0 reflected Gov. Brown’s health priorities,” Allen said. “I appreciate Tina’s wise counsel and support for our agency — and her commitment to improving the health of all Oregonians.”