Louise Rogers, chief of San Mateo County Health, had a vision.
Health care facilities with friendly entrances, airy atriums and soothing colors. Mental health treatment centers with garden views and fresh air. Dental care for the most vulnerable.
Her vision has snapped into reality across San Mateo County: at the Cordilleras Health and Healing Campus, where residents can sit at outdoor picnic tables and share meals in communal spaces; at the North County Wellness Center, where patients can learn about and apply for health insurance, nutrition assistance and additional social services while receiving health and dental care; and at soothing healing gardens where both clients and staff can recharge and hang out.
“I think the role that I’ve been able to play is really working on creating a more welcoming experience for the people that we serve,” said Rogers, who is retiring this week after a decade leading County Health. “It’s what we call ‘whole person centered care.’”
“When I think about what you’ve done, I think about the capital part of it,” David Canepa, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said during a ceremony honoring Rogers. “But I think what you’ve meant to the organization goes beyond buildings. I think with Louise it’s always been about her people. It’s always been about collaboration, and it’s always been about uplifting others.”
Rogers arrived at San Mateo County Health in 2002 to serve as assistant director of Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. Her leadership skills and commitment to the most vulnerable were recognized when in 2015 she was appointed chief of County Health, the County’s largest department in terms of budget and staffing.
Her biggest challenge came in the early months of 2020, when a virus that came to be known as COVID-19 rocked the world. By then, Rogers had been tested during the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at SFO and other calamities. During COVID, she pulled together a response team that provided daily briefings to local officials and the public and ultimately organized mass vaccination sites as well as micro-targeted neighborhood clinics.
San Mateo County Supervisor Lisa Gauthier said, “During the pandemic, I was in East Palo Alto serving as a councilmember. San Mateo County was the first county that brought everyone together. Under your (Rogers) leadership, we made sure that underserved communities received the vaccines needed. That meant a lot to us. You saved a lot of lives.”
Rogers came to San Mateo County from the San Francisco Health Department following a career arc with a number of disparate waypoints.
After graduating high school in Santa Fe, she volunteered in New Mexico state prisons with aspirations to become a public defender. She attended Yale University, had an internship at Ms. Magazine and worked in the juvenile justice system in New York City. (Among her caseload were members of the Central Park Five – youths who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989.)
She saw broken systems – criminal justice, health care, social services – failing kids long before they arrived at juvenile hall.
“What I realized is that by the time kids are in the justice system, things have gone so far wrong that it’s really too late to be making an impact on kids’ lives,” she said in an interview for this article. “That sent me up a path of seeing the need to intervene earlier, and that led me into health and behavioral health.
“Whatever philosophy you hold, it's the strategy that has to be followed in order to lift people up to live longer and better lives.”
Rogers came to believe that to make any meaningful change, systems have to provide care and safety nets for the whole person, not work in isolation.
“It’s all about eliminating poverty, making sure people have housing, making sure that kids have access to education and that they meet literacy standards. Those are what is really important.”
Colleen Chawla succeeded Rogers as chief of County Health in mid-February.
As Rogers heads into retirement, she looks forward to spending more time with her husband and their two sons, focusing on her passion for drawing and traveling to destinations such as Yellowstone National Park.
Supervisor Jackie Speier said, “As I think back at your career, the word professionalism is the word that comes to my mind. Total professionalism. You have a can-do attitude that was refreshing to experience day in and day out.”
Speier, who served in Congress during the pandemic, called Rogers “unflappable.”
“As a result of your work, thousands of people did not die because you showed such incredible leadership…. We will be forever indebted.”
Preston Merchant
Communications Officer
San Mateo County Health
Press Contact: (650) 867-1661
Press Email: press@smchealth.org