Werner hired as health department director

July 21, 2020

Werner

The Dubois County Board of Health officially hired Shawn Werner as the Dubois County Health Department’s administrative director on Monday.

Werner has been interim director since late June, after former director Jo Ann Spaulding resigned. He was the only one to apply for the position, said Dr. Jennifer Richardson, board of health chairman.

“We are so glad that you are in the position,” she told Werner, echoing the board’s sentiment.

Werner is a graduate of Northeast Dubois High School and has a degree in environmental health science from Indiana State University. He and his wife, Natalie, have two sons: 10-year-old Eli and 5-year-old Emmett.

Werner has been with the health department since 2003.

Currently, he has been taking care of the director duties as well as the duties of his former position as environmental health specialist. He expects that to continue through the end of the year, while someone else is trained.

“I do appreciate your continued support,” he said, “especially during this time.”

Quentin Tharp has been hired to fill an open position in the environmental health department; but his time was to be split between environmental health and food safety, Werner explained. He will start in August.

The health board decided to wait and see how well the new employee will be able to cover the environmental health work, before deciding if another person needs to be hired.

Werner mentioned that the department is also getting a numerous amount of calls about COVID-19 concerns and scenarios. The Dubois County Commissioners agreed to allow the health department to hire part-time help to field those calls; Werner will talk to the Dubois County Council about funding. Anything spent for the part-time help will be reimbursed through the CARES Act funding, he said.