Meet New Mother Lode Health Chief Ortiz
Sonora, CA – As she completes her first week on the job as Tuolumne County’s new public health officer, Dr. Liza Ortiz says she is readily settling into Mother Lode life.
Hailing from Chicago, Ortiz shares that having already experienced rural life in other locales, her acclimation has been more delightful than drastic. She states, off the bat, “Everyone has been wonderful to work with.” To this, she quickly adds, with a chuckle, “Everyone in this office is wonderfully competent — and very dedicated to the work — so, it’s a delight!”
High on her for starters list are vaccinations. At the same time, Ortiz notes, “We’re always doing a lot of work with nutrition, in general, and then Public Health always does a lot of emergency preparedness…and work with communicable diseases.” However, she says somberly, “I think the biggest thing on my immediate radar is the drought.” Next week, according to Ortiz, she and several staff members will be out of office while attending emergency preparedness training sessions in Atlanta.
A licensed physician through the Medical Board of California, Ortiz’ career path has focused on becoming a public health officer for a municipality. Before moving to Sonora, she practiced medicine as a primary care physician in Chicago. A 2009 graduate of Rush University in Chicago, Ortiz, in 2012, completed her residency in preventative medicine at the University of California Medical Center in San Diego. She holds masters’ degrees in public health and biomedical services and is board-certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.
