Less than a year after being hired, St. Joe County health officer says she'll be leaving

SOUTH BEND — St. Joseph County’s health officer, Dr. Diana Purushotham, has informed commissioners that she will resign the job after having started in the role in July.

Carl Baxmeyer, president of county commissioners, confirmed that Purushotham told him informally Tuesday that she would be leaving. He didn’t know when her last day would be, but her executive assistant said she is currently still serving as the health officer.

She is apparently leaving because she’ll be moving out of town as her husband takes a job elsewhere.

Purushotham herself has refused to offer comment to The Tribune until the county board of health meeting on March 20.

The health board had voted unanimously last June to appoint her as the new health officer. She had spent the last three years in St. Joseph County, working with the South Bend Clinic at Unity Physicians Hospital in Mishawaka.

She replaced Dr. Joseph Cerbin, a retired physician who filled in as health officer for four months until the county could hire a new one. He had replaced Dr. Robert Einterz, who’d announced in December 2022 that he'd resign at the end of March 2023, citing what he called the county commissioners' “harassment of the health department,” especially when they didn't immediately support funding for a behavioral crisis center.

Purushotham stepped in as the health department was securing millions of dollars of bonus funding from the state’s Health First Indiana program.

She was being paid an annual salary of $250,000, a loftier amount than prior health officers, which some county officials argued was needed to compete for a qualified physician.

The health department will see another departure soon, too, though apparently unrelated. Robin Vida, who has worked for the department for more than 16 years, told The Tribune that she will take a job locally at Oaklawn, where she will be a system of care coordinator working with youths and families.

She is currently director of the health department’s Health Outreach, Promotion, Education program. She said she will work in that role until April 1.

“I felt like it was the right time,” she said of the job change.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joseph County health officer to resign Dr. Diana Purushotham