The health leader who guided Kitsap through the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Nathan “Gib” Morrow, announced this month he will step down as Health Officer of the Kitsap Public Health District.

Morrow, the county’s top public health official, spent five years at helm. Aside from the pandemic, he dealt with a growing skeptism of standard public health measures, like vaccines, a rapid increase in opioid overdoses and a period of transition and major staffing shortages for the county’s lone civilian hospital.

“It hasn’t been an unmitigated joy,” he said during an interview from his downtown office last week. “But it’s been fantastic.”

Morrow committed to helping the county through the pandemic and says he has done everything he had set out to. He leaves the local health system in what he describes as a “transitional period.”

After two years of rebuilding and recovering from the effects pandemic, a new set of “monster challenges” await his successor. Rollbacks of federal health programs, like the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, adopted under the Trump Adminstration, are anticipated to have devastating effects once they begin to take effect in the next two years.

Ongoing political instability and gutting of public resources could also decrease people’s willingness to interact with the health system, Morrow said. That, he worries, could make it more difficult to control or analyze rates of communicable disease.

“What you’re seeing right now coming out of the federal government is very concerning for public health,” he said.

Morrow’s career began as a medical doctor, working at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham and the Whatcom County Jail. He transitioned into public health in 2019, after completing a master program at the University of Washington. Prior to his time in Kitsap, he was a deputy health officer in Sonoma County, Calif., and Whatcom County.

Morrow took over the top role at the Kitsap Public Health District in August 2020, succeeding Dr. Susan Turner, who retired after serving in the role since 2014. He started four months before the first county residents would recieved doses of the vaccine, a rollout Morrow and the health district were largley responbile for.

“I was watching PBS Newshour and looking at zillions of vaccines rolling of the shelf and thinking how are we going to keep up,” he recalled. At one point, Morrow said he gave out around 30 vaccines in an hour.

Since Janurary 2020, over 16,000 Washingtoninans have died from COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kitsap County Commissioner Christine Rolfes, a member of the county health board, praised Morrow for stepping and bringing order to a chaotic and uncertain situation.

“I think the community doesn’t know what you did,” she said during a July board meeting. “But you saved lives and helped us adapt to two to three years of uncertainty.”

Rolfes also credited Morrow for his work with St. Michael Medical Center. The hospital went through a turbulent period, experiencing severe staffing shortages in emergecey room. That caused massive backups for ambulances trying to drop of patients, creating what local fire chiefs called a “crisis.”

Morrow said much of his tenure was exploring the complex health systems in Kitsap County and finding how they could be addressed. After the pandemic “there was a lot of damage” and “economic disparity only got worse.” Many systems, he said, had to be restructured to support the most vulnerable.

The health district had paid for a comprehensive study of the county’s health care system in 2024. The challenges identified in that report produced by researchers at Johns Hopkins University still exist, particularly the availability of primary and preventative care.

Yet others have softened. The situation at St. Michael, for example, has improved. First responders reported lower wait times following the opening of two new emergency rooms and improved staffing levels.

Morrow said health care providers can be territorial, but following the pandemic, Kitsap’s have worked to break down organizational barriers. Maintaining that dialogue and collaboration, he says, will be crucial to the region’s future success amid federal uncertainty.

“Paternships,” he said, “That’s how communities like ours can stay ahead.”

Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit newsroom based in Gig Harbor, through a program managed by Washington State University.