Whitman County Public Health Director Troy Henderson resigned after receiving a job offer from the U.S. Department of Defense to go overseas to Germany.

After 7.5 years of working at the Whitman County Health Department, Henderson said Nov. 15 will be his last day. He will start his new job on Nov. 23.

“I will be working with the Defense Health Agency, providing some public health support for unarmed military service members,” Henderson said. 

Henderson said he has 25 years of military service under his belt and is looking forward to working with the military again.

Henderson said he appreciates the opportunity he has had to work at the health department for the last several years. The people in the Whitman County department work well together to solve issues within the community, he said.

“I’ll miss the opportunity to work with that group and get things done for the people in the county,” Henderson said. 

However, he won’t miss all the dust during harvest season due to his dust allergy, he said with a laugh.

Henderson has done good work in the department since he started, said Ben Stone, Whitman County Public Health backup public information officer. Most recently, he set up a team to coordinate the health department’s response to COVID-19.

Henderson is leaving the department in a good position to handle COVID-19, he said.

Chris Skidmore, recently appointed interim public health director, said he will start his new position on Nov. 16.

Skidmore has been working at the health department for seven years, he said. Before his job there, he was a research scientist for seven years for WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry.

The opportunity to take Henderson’s place is exciting, he said. He is prepared to take on the challenges of the job.

“It will be challenging since we are in the middle of the pandemic and case counts for COVID are going up,” Skidmore said.