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Pinal County health director retiring
Pinal County Health Director Tascha Spears established family advocacy centers in San Tan Valley and Maricopa; and created a medical forensics program, getting nurses qualified and trained to work with children and adults.
Pinal County Public Health Director Tascha Spears is retiring and her last day with the county will be Feb. 13.
“(I)t’s been a privilege to live and to work in Pinal County,” she said at the Feb. 1 meeting of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors. “Pinal County in particular — especially the board — has really provided so much guidance and concern for our constituents.”
Spears established family advocacy centers in San Tan Valley and Maricopa; and created a medical forensics program, getting nurses qualified and trained to work with children and adults, County Manager Leo Lew said.
“And then naturally — as we had a need in public health and the pandemic — she took those reins and she led that department and that team through really challenging times and did a very successful job,” Lew said.
Spears was successful in getting grants for public health funding, he said.
“(E)very grant she’s ever applied for I think she’s gotten. And she’s applied for a lot and has really benefited this county through that,” he said. “Anything she gets involved with creates good things, quality services, things that are needed for our community that we didn’t have before.”
Board Chairman Jeff Serdy complimented county health officials for their role in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of it happened before I was seated on the board but I think Pinal County navigated the COVID nonsense way better than a lot of the other counties and we were noticed for that too,” he said.
Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Richard Dyer Assistant Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. since 1987. Since 2009 he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014 has been overseeing the art submissions. He also is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows
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