Dr. Joan Duwve joined the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Nov. 2020 to lead the COVID-19 Unified Testing Strategy before moving into the Deputy State Health Officer position in July 2021. In early 2022, Joan Duwve became KDHE’s State Health Officer, a role she held until relocating to California with her husband in January 2024. As the SHO, she worked with the Secretary of Health to lead the state COVID-19 testing program. In addition, she served as the medical expert for the agency and supported agency diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and integration of Public Health, Environment, and Medicaid programs. She advocated for and led the work to improve collaboration between state and local public health officials, facilitating monthly calls with the Health Officers of Kansas.
Before moving to Kansas, Dr. Duwve served as the Director of Public Health for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). In this capacity, she provided strategic direction for public health, leading its more than 1,900 public health employees. During her time at DHEC, she also developed the statewide COVID-19 testing and surveillance program and prioritized updates of the COVID-19 webpage to provide data transparency and effective visualizations. She worked with agency leadership to create an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and a Quality Improvement Program.
Prior to joining DHEC, she served as the Associate Dean of Practice for the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health in Indianapolis, Indiana, and developed and directed the ECHO Center to train primary care providers in rural communities to treat patients with complex conditions like HIV and hepatitis C, and provide culturally sensitive and medically appropriate care to the LGBTQIA+ community. In that role, she worked with the Indiana Department of Health (IDP) to create an Academic Health Department. Dr. Duwve also served as the Chief Medical Officer with the Indiana Department of Health and worked to increase adolescent immunization delivery statewide, resulting in significant improvements in adolescent vaccination rates. With a former Indiana Attorney General, she created and cochaired the first state opioid task force to engage stakeholders around the state in ground-breaking conversations on naloxone, harm reduction, and medical treatment for opioid use disorder. She served on the ASTHO Senior Deputies Committee as the IDP representative and Chair, and was the Senior Deputy representative on the ASTHO Board of Directors.
Before transitioning to state public health work, she practiced family medicine in Indiana for 11 years. For four years prior to attending medical school, Dr. Duwve supported governmental and private public health agencies in Middle Eastern and Francophone African countries as a Grants Officer with Engender Health, a New York City based international public health agency.
In addition to Dr. Duwve’s more than 20 years of experience in public health, she holds a Medical Doctor degree (MD) from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her residency in family medicine at St. Vincent Hospital and Health Services in Indianapolis. She also holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Michigan and completed her undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University.