A Message from California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

To my fellow health champions,

I am filled with emotion as I share that my last day serving as California Surgeon General will be Friday, February 11. I have always felt drawn to public service, so being able to serve during the greatest public health crisis in a century has been the experience of a lifetime.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to establish the Office of the California Surgeon General and to move the needle in our priority areas of early childhood, health equity, and ACEs and toxic stress. It is not lost on me that our progress was made possible by all of you.

In only two years, we launched the ACEs Aware initiative, scaled it statewide, and anchored it in academia at the UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN). Together, we have trained more than 20,000 clinicians and screened more than half a million Californians for ACEs. Under the leadership of UCAAN, the important work you are doing across the state to advance ACE awareness is impressive and will continue to change lives because of all of you.

Your dedication and ongoing support is humbling and I can’t thank you enough for bringing this extraordinary dream to life.

I’m sure you’ve heard me say – many times – that self-care isn’t selfish. They are words that I live by. So as I transition out of this role, I am going to pause my professional life while I focus on prioritizing care for myself and my family.

It has been such an honor to work in partnership with you to launch a movement that is making such a tangible difference in the lives of Californians every day. The Office of the California Surgeon General will continue to engage in this work, which will carry on unabated, with your invaluable support and engagement.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

-Nadine