Dr. Clayon Chau, Orange County’s Health Care Agency director, submitted a letter of resignation March 28, and is expected to leave the post June 1, 2023.
“Although I feel sad about leaving, the time is right. It is time for me to take a break,” Chau said March 29 in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times. “I’m leaving the OC Health Care Agency ... with a strong leadership team and in very capable hands. I have no doubt leadership will continue with the vision we’ve set out for the [agency].”
Chau became the agency’s director in May of 2020 but also assumed the role as its public health officer a month later, replacing Dr. Nichole Quick who resigned that same month after her directive for a countywide mask mandate spurred backlash from some local residents, who disclosed her home address during a board meeting and protested outside her residence.
Chau faced similar criticism from some over mask mandates and stay-at-home orders after he replaced Quick in the role, which he held until March of 2022 when Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong took over.
Previously, Chau worked for the county’s Behavioral Health Services from 1999 to 2012. More recently, he was employed with Mind OC, a nonprofit associated with the mental health center Be Well OC.
He also taught at the University of California-Irvine and UCLA, and worked for Providence Health System and the L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest nonprofit health care plan.
Chau said the Health Care Agency has a “concrete plan,” moving forward as the COVID State of Emergency is ending.
“The HCA staff and public health workers stepped up and worked very hard during the pandemic resulting in a solid infrastructure that includes community partners, providers, leadership from academic institutions/Faith based institutions/businesses, and collaborators coming together from across Orange County,” he said.
A successor for Chau has not been named, as yet, according to health care agency officials.
