Windsor-Essex Health Unit CEO Retires

Ms Marentette, who is the CEO and chief nurse of the Windsor-Essex Health Unit, is retiring on Wednesday.

She told CBC that the hardest part of her job in recent months has been the lives the community has lost due to COVID-19.

She said one of her darkest days came during Wave 2, when she reported the death, from COVID-19, of a man who was only 27 years old.

I have three children and I have a daughter who is exactly the same age. I realized we could lose such young people. […] It was a difficult day.

Ms. Marentette had announced her retirement in April. She joined the Windsor-Essex Health Unit as a Public Health Nurse in 1989. She became Director of Health Protection and Chief Nurse in 2013 and was promoted to CEO in 2017.

Tackling the worst public health crisis in generations was for her the last act of a career in public health spanning more than 30 years.

Leave with a light heart

Since the start of the pandemic, 16,820 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the region and 434 people have died after contracting the disease.

The declining daily numbers of new cases in Windsor-Essex make Ms Marentette feel good, and this despite acknowledging that the Delta variant could quickly make a difference.

Today I think we are in a very good position […] it’s not over yet, but i think we are moving forward, she clarified.

Along with other tasks, including work underway to set up a supervised consumption site, Theresa Marentette was leading the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccination.

So far, his efforts have been successful. More than 40% of adults in Windsor-Essex are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and nearly three-quarters of adults have received at least one dose.

Nicole Dupuis, the current Director of Health Promotion for the Windsor-Essex Health Unit, is the office’s new Executive Director.

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