WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
HEALTH
Olivia Kasirye
Public Health Officer / Sacramento County
In 2016, four years into Dr. Olivia Kasirye’s tenure as public
health officer of Sacramento County, the fentanyl overdoses be-
gan. Fifty-two people in the greater Sacramento area overdosed
after taking counterfeit narcotics in March and April of that
year alone. As federal agents launched their investigation into
the source of the pills, Kasirye’s media team lined her up for TV
appearances and radio and print interviews around the region.
Kasirye was a stable figure at the center of a crisis. With
carefully chosen words, she cautioned listeners against
taking the pills as calmly as she would remind them to stay
hydrated in the summer and to get f lu vaccines in the fall.
Kasirye reprised this role frequently in the following years
whenever Sacramento County residents needed a reminder
that — as long as they took the right precautions — the latest
public health incident would not lead to end-times.
“It’s really important for us to make sure that the infor-
mation that we provide is as accurate as possible and that
people will trust the word that we give them,” Kasirye says.
“We are the ones who gather information and are able to get
that information out to the community.”
During more than two decades in public health, Kasirye
has served as the Sacramento County communicable disease
controller, STD controller and tuberculosis controller, and
spent three years as El Dorado County’s public health officer.
Her current position requires her to oversee a staff of 200
working on multiple programs, including disease control and
surveillance and health education. The common goal among
the programs is to arm Sacramento County’s 1.5 million resi-
dents with the tools they need to protect their health.
The public health officer position carries some unique pow-
ers. Failure to comply with an order from Kasirye’s office is a
legal misdemeanor, so she can order people with infectious dis-
ease who fail to take their medication or segregate themselves
to be put in jail. “Getting to the point where you’re actually
turning someone in is not easy, because you’re basically taking
away their freedom,” says Kasirye. “But, of course, the most im-
portant thing is to make sure that we protect the community.”
Kasirye left her homeland of Uganda in 1991, after watch-
ing the country pass from hand to hand in a decades-long se-
ries of military coups and lived in the Bronx and Youngston,
Ohio, before coming to UC Davis for her master’s in public
health. Establishing a medical career in the United States
with a foreign degree, even from the prestigious Makerere
University in Kampala, proved to be an uphill task, requiring
new coursework and grueling exams.
Her experiences have given Kasirye insights that help her
connect with the diverse population of Sacramento County
and her staff. “Being able to have an open mind and hear what
other people have to say, I think, is really important,” she says.
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comstocksmag.com | March 2020
by Jennifer Fergesen