New Public Health Officer Appointed

Amherst has promoted a longtime Amherst EMS employee to the town’s public health officer position.

Former public health officer deputy Katherine Lockwood was recommended by the Board of Selectmen last week, replacing the current Amherst EMS director Brian Gleason in the position.

She has been with Amherst EMS for the past 23 years, and served as deputy for the past five years. Her duties will now include health inspections, working as a state liaison for health alerts and educating the public on health issues.

Lockwood has served in the deputy position for about five years, and is looking forward to using her experience in education to connect the community to essential health information. , and has a PHD in public health.

“I’d like to do more public health education for the community,” she said. “I think people are excited to learn through adult education and other programs. There are a lot of good things we can do.”

She also wrote a textbook called Clinical Correlates in Anatomy and Physiology, which was published last year.

Lockwood said that her goal is to take what Gleason started in regards to educating the public and expand on it. Gleason had recently stepped down from the position, and will now focus his efforts on his director duties after managing both roles for the past few years.

Town employees John St. Pierre and Richard Keyes will serve as the new deputies to the public health officer positions. St. Pierre works in the Zoning office and Keyes also works in the Amherst DPW.

The new public health officer said that each of them brings different knowledge and skills to the table. She specializes in the microbiological aspect of health, St. Pierre will contribute his engineering knowledge and Keyes has knowledge of public works operations.

Her deputies’ unique backgrounds will certainly help during emergencies like Snowtober, according to Lockwood.

“The three of us together have different strengths and will be able to support each other really well,” she said. “If anything really big comes along, you need as many people as you can.”