Mayor LaFrance bulks up her top-salary team, including new medical director from Bend, Oregon

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has hired a retired epidemiologist from Oregon who has extensive experience working in China to be Anchorage’s new medical director.

Dr. George Conway retired from a similar position at Deschutes County, Oregon, where Bend is the county seat. During the Covid pandemic, the county allowed employers to require workers to receive a Covid-19 shot, with limited exceptions. Over 73% of the population of Oregon took the Covid shots, which the State of Oregon has officially deemed safe for everyone. Shot mandates were not controversial in Oregon, as they are in Alaska.

According to the Deschutes County web page dedicated to Covid information, “All of the COVID-19 vaccines being given in Oregon are safe for everyone, even if you’re pregnant. The vaccines have been tested with thousands of people around the world. Black, Indigenous, Latino/a and people of color have chosen to be part of these research studies to make sure the vaccines are safe for our communities. We know they are safe and work very well to keep people from getting sick with COVID-19.”

That would be in line with the thinking of the Anchorage Assembly, which must approve his hiring. The doctor who worked for Mayor Dave Bronson took a different approach to mandates and masks.

“Mandates are a political action,” Savitt told reporters, referring to Covid shot mandates. “That’s not something that will be a recommendation coming from us.” His hiring was widely criticized by the news media and was highly politicized by Democrats. Savitt so angered Democrats in Anchorage that it led to a ballot question to voters this year, who approved the Assembly now having the power to approve or disapprove the hiring of every medical director.

Conway will likely receive a pass from the Alaska news media and Democrats in Anchorage.

His biographical summary at the Oregon State Legislature says he has worked in Alaska, the Arctic, and in other extreme environments, and is known for his work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has “extensive international experience in designing, implementing and managing successful health programs to address public health threats,” his bio states. He also teaches at Oregon State University.

From 2012 through 2015, Conway was assigned by C.D.C. to serve as Senior Advisor to the Chinese Centers for Disease Control as well as Public Health Attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing where he provided assistance in environmental health and occupational health and safety to the U.S. mission in China, including supporting the mission’s effort to address severe air pollution conditions impacting the U.S. Embassy workers.

As health director for Deschutes County, in addition to leading over 300 county-employed public health and behavioral health specialists, Conway advised the residents and governments during episodes of heavy wildfire smoke, providing guidance and recommendations during numerous local town hall meetings to community members and local businesses.

Conway is a past president of the International Union for Circumpolar Health. He has expertise in dealing with multiple public health issues including HIV/AIDS as well as health, safety, and environment in the fishing, agriculture, aviation, and oil and gas industries; and his work on air pollution and other environmental hazards includes over 100 scientific articles, monographs, and book chapters and is often cited. He has been a keynote speaker at many international conferences.

Conway holds a medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and a masters of public health from the University of South Carolina. He is board-certified in general preventive medicine and public health.

His appointment is subject to confirmation by the Anchorage Assembly. There is no mention as to whether he is going to move to Anchorage or work remotely from Bend, but Anchorage city workers are largely working from their homes these days, and so Conway will likely travel back and forth from Oregon.

The Anchorage medical officer for Mayor Dave Bronson was paid $143,936 a year for his services, but the amount paid to Conway has not been announced yet.

Other appointments to top-tier positions in the Anchorage Municipality include positions that have been paid over $140,000 a year in the past:

• Chief Fiscal Officer Philippe Brice has served the Municipality of Anchorage as the acting Information Technology Director since May 2023, after being named Deputy Director in 2021. He worked as the Chief Financial Officer for several private-sector businesses and has a degree and a professional background in accounting.
  Purchasing Director Chris Hunter has been acting director since July 2024. He has been at the municipality more than nine years, serving as deputy director since 2021 after over 30 years working for ConocoPhillips Alaska.
  Information Technology Director Sioux-z Humphrey Marshall returns to her 2018-2021 role, when she adapted the city for pandemic remote work, and migrated the organization off of the mainframe systems.
  Internal Auditor Alden Thern has been serving as Chief Fiscal Officer since May 2023. He was Municipal Projects Director from 2019-2023 and Deputy Municipal Manager from 2015-2019.
• Planning Department Director Mélisa Babb is a land-use planner and licensed landscape architect with site design and project management experience across Alaska. Babb replaces Planning Director Craig Lyon, who has announced that he will retire in 2024.
  Project Management & Engineering (PM&E) Director Melinda Kohlhaas is a professional civil engineer with over 30 years of experience. Kohlhaas has worked at PM&E for the last 16 years, including as its acting director, and has been with the municipality since 2005.  
  Public Works Director Kent Kohlhase has worked for the municipality since 2013. He served as Private Development Manager in the Development Services Department and Engineering Design Manager for PM&E, as well as the department’s director. He worked as acting Building Official and Director of Development Services as well as Municipal Manager from December 2022-July 2024.
  Health Department Director Kim Rash began her career in Section 8/Housing Choice as a receptionist before her promotion to manager, then spent over nine years assisting individuals with SNAP and Medicaid benefits at Arapahoe County Department of Human Services.