Clallam County selects new health officer

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Clallam County’s Board of Health appointed Dr. Allison Berry Unthank as the new Clallam County Health Officer.

Unthank fills the role after county health officer Dr. Christopher Frank announced his resignation in May. He officially stepped down from the position in early August.

Unthank graduated from Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her medical doctorate and masters in public health in epidemiology and biostatistics. She completed residency in family medicine at the University of Washington, where she practiced primary care and hospital medicine at Harborview Medical Center.

She has been working as a family physician at Jamestown Family Health Center in Sequim, where she also leads the addiction medicine department.

Unthank said that she feels “honored by the opportunity and excited to get to work,” and noted, “Clallam County has been a leader in innovation and partnership to address the opiate epidemic.”

She also said she hopes to “solidify and build on that momentum, while expanding to address other critical areas of our mission, like maternal/child health, mental health and homelessness.”

Andy Brastad, Health and Human Services Director, said, “We are very fortunate to have someone of Dr. Unthank’s caliber accept the position of Clallam County Health Officer. I am sure that the residents and visitors of Clallam County will be well served.”