CHARLESTON — The tenure of Dr. Matthew Christiansen as state health officer came to an end Friday.

According to a press release issued Monday by the West Virginia Department of Health, Christiansen, who previously served as West Virginia’s drug czar, stepped down Friday as State Health Officer and commissioner of the Bureau of Public Health.

“I am incredibly thankful to Gov. Justice and Secretary (Sherri) Young for the opportunity to serve as West Virginia’s state health officer. It has been the honor of a lifetime,” Christiansen said in a prepared statement.

“I would like to thank Dr. Christiansen for his time serving as state health officer,” said Young, the cabinet secretary for the Department of Health. “We wish him nothing but the best as he explores new opportunities.”

Justice and Jeffrey Coben, the interim secretary for the former Department of Health and Human Resources, announced Christiansen’s appointment as the state health officer in January 2023. He succeeded Dr. Ayne Amjad in that role.

The Bureau of Public Health is an agency overseen by the state health officer, a position that reports directly to the Department of Health secretary. The bureau oversees several agencies, including the Medical Examiner’s Office; the Health Statistics Center; the Division of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease; and the offices of Medical Cannabis, Maternal Child and Family Health and Environmental Health Services.

The state health officer also oversees the Public Health Laboratory, the Center for Threat Preparedness and the Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services. All three agencies were on the front lines of West Virginia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am incredibly proud of the work we have done in rebuilding public health after the pandemic, and I plan to bring the lessons I’ve learned here to my work going forward,” Christiansen said. “Public health staff are unsung heroes who keep us healthy, and they deserve our respect and thanks every single day.”

Christiansen is Justice’s fourth state health officer. Dr. Rahul Gupta, the current director of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy, served in the role for both former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Justice from 2015 to 2018.

He was succeeded by Dr. Cathy Slemp, who started her career at DHHR in 1994 and served as interim state health officer from 2002 to 2011. Slemp resigned as state health officer in June 2020, four months into the COVID-19 pandemic after then-DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch cited a “lack of confidence” in Slemp’s ability to lead the office following complaints by Justice that active COVID case numbers were being inflated. Justice appointed Amjad shortly after Slemp’s resignation.

Justice appointed Christiansen as the state’s drug czar and fifth person to lead the Office of Drug Control Policy in 2020. The Legislature created ODCP in 2017. The agency is charged with developing a state drug control policy and strategic planning and advising the governor and the Legislature.

Christiansen is an associate professor for the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Health, where he focuses on family care and addiction medicine. He is also the Region 5 representative on the West Virginia First Foundation, the nonprofit created to distribute nearly $1 billion settlement in settlement funds with prescription opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Last week, the West Virginia First Foundation approved providing $20 million for the Appalachian Continuum of Care for Overdose Reduction Network (ACCORN), a new program aimed at southern West Virginia counties to reduce substance use and its effects, such as EMS responses to overdoses, recidivism rates and neonatal abstinence syndrome among newborn babies. According to West Virginia Watch, one of ACCORN’S partners includes Marshall Health.