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A native West New Yorker with a quarter-century of experience in the public health field is Annarelly “Annie” McNair who was appointed as the Health Officer and Kearny Health Department director by the town governing body on October 26, 2021. McNair is licensed by the state Department of Health as a municipal Health Officer.

She was president of the West New York’s Memorial High School 1988 senior class and has always been oriented toward science. To broaden her knowledge of preventive medicine, McNair completed a master’s degree at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in 1996.

From 1996 to 1999, McNair worked for New York Medical College, in Valhalla, New York, as program coordinator of the Hudson Valley childhood lead poisoning prevention resource center; between 1999 and 2000, she was program coordinator for the Harlem Adherence to HIV/AIDS Treatment Study at Harlem Hospital Center/Columbia University; and in 2000, she returned to New York Medical College, putting in five years as program director of New Yorkers Caring for New Yorkers. She also underwent a six-year stint at Hudson Regional Health Commission, based in Secaucus, in the dual role as Medical Reserve Corps coordinator and Public Health Practice Standards Partnership coordinator.

From 2011 to 2014, McNair served Hackensack Meridian Health/Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen as director of Hospital Public Health Initiatives, implementing a cardiac care intervention strategy; and from 2014 to 2021, she served as health officer/director of health management for Union County.

In coordinating the county’s response to the pandemic, McNair set up a database tracking the incidence, distribution and control of COVID-19 cases, oversaw contact tracing and investigation of cases of those who tested positive for the virus, supervised a call center that updated the community on new developments with the pandemic and daily vaccination clinics including planning for mobile vaccination centers — all in addition to her regular duties as health officer.