QuickTake:

Dr. Sejal Hathi told staffers in an email obtained by Lookout Eugene-Springfield that she will leave the agency, effective Aug. 1. She has been its director for about 2½ years.

This is a breaking news item that will be updated. 

Dr. Sejal Hathi, director of the Oregon Health Authority, is leaving the agency that she joined in January 2024. 

Hathi announced her departure in a note to staff Thursday, July 2 obtained by Lookout Eugene-Springfield. Her note said she made the decision “after a great deal of reflection over the past several months” and is effective Aug. 1. 

Hathi didn’t say what her next job may be. 

“There is never an easy time for a transition like this, and it is time for me to focus on my family, my health and personal priorities, and the next chapter of my life and service,” Hathi wrote. 

Hathi was a New Jersey public health deputy commissioner, when Kotek hired her for the Health Authority role.

In a separate note to staffers, Kotek said she is appointing Fairborz Pakseresht as the interim director while recruiting for a permanent director. Pakseresht retired as the director of Oregon Health and Human Services in 2025. 

“We are grateful for her leadership and her steady work to strengthen health care and Oregon’s public health system during her time with us,” Kotek’s note said. 

Hathi’s Oregon Health Authority ride was sometimes bumpy – and it came at a tumultuous time for health care. 

The agency oversees the Oregon Health Plan, the Medicaid-funded program that provides health coverage for low and moderate-income Oregonians. Across the United States, Medicaid is facing cuts and restrictions under the federal administration. 

Directly in Oregon, the authority-run Oregon State Hospital has experienced a string of unexpected patient deaths, most recently in March 2025 with the death of a Lane County 25-year-old man in a seclusion room. 

The patient, Kenneth Hass, spent months in seclusion rooms before his death and federal regulators found multiple problems with his care. 

Relying on public records, Lookout Eugene-Springfield reported June 16 that Oregon State Hospital’s consultants told Hathi that patients were kept in seclusions or restraints for days or weeks longer than necessary months before the patient died. That information came to her in November 2024 – four months before the March 2025 death. 

That also conflicted with previous statements she issued through a spokesperson about not knowing about the severity of the problem of seclusion until after the death. 

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.