Within the health department, one anonymous employee who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency, said Greene’s philosophy imperils their work and the people they serve and represents a full turnabout from policies prioritized under the administration of former governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat.
“First of all, I was just angry,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “It reminded me a lot of many of the stories I have heard … of Black women who say there’s a problem, and the medical establishment, particularly White male doctors, older, dismiss what they are saying.
McClellan said Greene’s views made her question work done to try to reverse the disparities, including the state’s April 2021 Maternal Health Strategic Plan, which says “structural racism is at the root of maternal health disparities just as it is for many other health disparities.”The maternal mortality rate for Black women is 2.5 times the rate for White women, according to data analyzed in the plan.
She also praised Walker Harris, a Johns Hopkins-educated doctor, as “a consummate professional who is doing what Black women throughout history have done and that is see a problem and working to address it, trying to overcome pushback with grace and dignity.”Walker Harris was director of the Office of Family Health Services from 2015 to 2020, when Northam appointed her deputy secretary of Health and Human Resources.