IDPH Director Ezike to step down March 14
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[March 02, 2022]
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Department of
Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike will resign on March 14 after
three years leading the agency and two years navigating a deadly
pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 32,000 Illinoisans.
Ezike, who was appointed IDPH director in 2019, became a widely
recognized public figure in the state as the COVID-19 pandemic upended
daily life across the globe.
“There is something particularly heroic about the service of an
extraordinary individual who did not seek greatness, but found it
anyway,” Gov. JB Pritzker said, proclaiming March 1 “Dr. Ngozi Ezike
Day” in Illinois.
When she got the call from Pritzker in January 2019, she said she wrote
in her journal, “I'm so excited to grow and be stretched to new limits.”
“I didn't exactly know the full impact of that,” she said through a
laugh Tuesday after reading the passage.
Beginning with daily updates in March 2020, Ezike appeared at more than
160 COVID-19-related news conferences alongside the governor, putting a
public face on the medical side of the state’s executive branch-driven
pandemic response.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/02/images/ads/current/christianchurch_lda_PRESCHOOL_2022.png)
“IDPH consists of a team of unsung heroes, that by nature and definition
works behind the scenes, who's committed to public health. And that
commitment gave me strength every day,” she said.
Pritzker said the department will be led in the interim by Dr. Amaal
Tokars, an IDPH top deputy who has at times appeared next to the
governor at his news conferences as well.
Ezike, a mother of four, thanked her family for “tolerating the
absences” over the past two years.
“You have stood by and you have supported me and you've not complained
and you have made dinners and you've done all the pickups and the
drop-offs,” Ezike said. “But now it's time for me to make you my
priority. And give back a portion of the attention and the encouragement
and the support that you lavished on me.”
An emotional Ezike thanked the governor and the people of Illinois for
giving her strength in a difficult time.
“I acknowledge and mourn with the families of all the lives lost not
just to COVID, but to gun violence, to suicide, to drug overdose, to
racism, to cancer, and all the other diseases and ills that public
health officials and all of our partners work tirelessly to curb,” she
said.
Ezike also said that while the statewide indoor mask mandate was lifted
as of Monday, it’s important to be respectful of Illinoisans who still
choose to wear face coverings for medical or other reasons.
“We have embarked on a new chapter in our COVID journey, and I just want
to highlight that as the mask requirement has been lifted it does not
mean that it's not recommended,” she said. “And as we think about our
individual situations…It may absolutely be the case that you are an
individual either because of your own self-assessment… or because of
those that you live with, that you will continue to wear a mask.”
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![](../images/030222pics/news_w4.jpg)
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr.
Ngozi Ezike appears with Gov. JB Pritzker in his office in
Springfield in March 2020. She announced Tuesday she is stepping
down as IDPH director after three years. (Capitol News Illinois
photo by Peter Hancock)
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/02/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png) Ezike said declining COVID-19
transmission rates and hospitalizations, as well as increasing
vaccination rates, are leading to a lull in the pandemic that
created a window for her to step down.
“I'm hoping that with all the vaccinations and the
therapeutics that are available that we will have, you know, a quiet
spring. Spring and summer have typically been stable times. So this
is my chance,” she said.
She said IDPH will continue to monitor for future surges and adapt
accordingly.
Pritzker also warned that despite the mandate being lifted, “COVID
has not been eradicated.”
Tuesday marked two years to the day that Illinois’ third and fourth
confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported, Pritzker said. Since that
time, Ezike has dedicated long nights to overseeing the state’s
pandemic response, he added.
“With all her being, she has dedicated each day – and I mean every
day – to the agency's mission to protect the health and wellness of
the people of Illinois,” he said. “For much of the last two years,
she's dedicated every night too, even with this unprecedented
internal workload.”
The governor credited the outgoing public health director for
“providing not only the latest expertise and data, but also her
empathy and her compassion.”
Ezike has been “a beacon of stability for millions during a time of
tremendous uncertainty,” he said, crediting her for giving updates
in English and Spanish.
“This pandemic is a collective trauma that has, for many, numbed
their ability to comprehend death on a massive scale,” Pritzker
said. “Not Dr. Ezike. No number of sleepless nights and endless days
could wear her down in her commitment to think first and foremost of
Illinois’ most vulnerable.”
In announcing Ezike’s plan to leave the department, Pritzker called
it a “change that I’m loathe to accept.”
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/02/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
“But perhaps she can finally get a good night's sleep and precious
time with her husband and her four kids,” he said. “I have utmost
faith that Dr. Ezike’s next journey will also bring more good to the
world, as has been the hallmark of every step of her career.”
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon also praised the outgoing
director.
“Throughout this pandemic, Dr. Ezike has been a calming,
compassionate voice offering reassurance and information to the
people of Illinois in at least two languages,” he said. “I want to
thank her for her commitment to the public health of this great
state and wish her the very best in her next endeavors.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service
covering state government and distributed to more than 400
newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press
Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |