Kelly Weidenbach will serve as Adams County’s first health director in the post-Tri County era, after its inaugural board of health offered her the job Thursday.

Weidenbach has served as Adams County’s point-person for the creation of its new health department since February, a few months after Adams leaders voted to leave Tri-County Health Department.

She had previously worked for Tri-County, and before that, she’d served as the executive director of the health department in Wyoming’s second-largest city of Casper. 

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At the Thursday meeting at which the decision was announced, Weidenbach said she was honored to take the job and was excited and impressed by the county’s health team, which it’s built out over the past several months. 

In a statement following the decision, she added that one of the agency’s top priorities is health equity.

“We often talk about raising the voices of communities and populations that may have been historically undervalued, underrepresented, and who experience adverse or disproportionate outcomes,” she said. “We will also be really looking around recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic — looking at places where the community may have lost traction on important health issues such as mental health, substance abuse, and physical and mental well-being.”

Weidenbach takes over a new health department, borne of an acrimonious divorce amid Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties. Douglas County’s leaders hammered the first nail into Tri-County’s coffin in September, voting to leave after disagreements over masking. Adams County followed suit a few weeks later, leaving Arapahoe no choice.