It's been about one month since Chad Kingsley was hired as the new District Health Officer for Northern Nevada Public Health. You may remember Kevin Dick retired after serving nearly 40 years in public health.

Kingsley has been working in public health for about 13 years so far. After earning his medical degree in Mexico, he worked as a clinical physician and local health officer for three years. He then spent the next 10 years working with the Southern Nevada Health District - and then served as the Public Health Director of Mohave County in Arizona before coming here.

He tells us during the pandemic he was very involved helping the schools. "I focused a lot on schools. I helped manage the school systems that first time when they were going back to school, writing the policy in the book and working with the Department of Education, so that was my extent of all of it. And when I became director of health in Mohave, I was just helping wrap that up, really how do we move on and continue forward from this pandemic and what have we learned."

Kingsley says some things he'll be focusing on in this new role is prevention and promotion - ensuring all regulations stay in place to prevent sickness.

"My vision is always promotion. Promote health, promote education and how can we help somebody increase their longevity," he adds.

He's also looking to find sustainable funding in order to deliver these services for public health. And having been a doctor in Mexico, he tells us he's looking forward to interacting with the minorities in our community.

"We have about 30% of our population are Latino, so being able to really reach out and make those bridges that really need to be made and maintained so we can grow together as a community."

Before handing the role over to him, Kingsley tells us Kevin Dick shared some advice to help him remain successful as the new leader.

"We've compared a lot of notes and stuff and it's just being accessible to a lot of employees and listening and being responsive to the community," says Kingsley.

He says he's looking forward to getting to know northern Nevada, not just as a district health officer but also as a resident, such as camping, skiing, and exploring with his family.