The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve a New Canaan resident who already has been lending her expertise to the community as the town’s medical director.
Dr. Jamie Ruszkowski. Credit: Comprehensive Care of New Canaan P.C. https://www.ccncpc.com/
Dr. Jamie Ruszkowski, who also has worked for the past 18 months as an internist in New Canaan, succeeds Dr. David Reed in the appointed role.
Jenn Eielson, the town’s health director, told the selectmen at their regular meeting that the Health Department had been introduced to Ruszkowski by Dr. Harrison Pierce, chair of the Health & Human Services Commission.
“She’s been volunteering her time working with my staff and she works closely with my nurse Ellen [Samai] and [Sanitarian I/Health Program Planner] Shannon [Vallerie] and I think she’s going to be a natural fit to this role,” Eielson said at the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
She continued: “We’re looking forward to having her aboard as the medical director.”
According to Ruszkowski’s resume, she earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cell biology from the University of Connecticut, a medical degree from Albany Medical College, and completed her internship at Yale. After working as an internist in New Canaan, Trumbull and Westport, she returned to town in April 2023 as principal of Comprehensive Care of New Canaan P.C., located in The New Canaan Medical Groups on East Avenue.
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of her appointment as medical director.
According to Eielson, the role is designed to facilitate the town’s vaccine program.
“They are actually the prescribing physician,” she said. “So that’s the main role, statutorily, why towns have a medical director, but it’s not something where you come in the office or anything like that. You can make it more like what Jamie’s already been doing with us, on a volunteer basis, by doing a lot of the community programming. That’s what we’re looking forward to, especially with her background and her expertise and some of the newer things coming out. So we’re hoping to do more, especially with mental health and that being a big thing, especially in New Canaan. And we have already tapped into some of her friends, like Dr. Elle de Moll is the one we work with doing the skin cancer free screening. So the role itself is primarily just for the vaccine program and anything that comes up.”
Carlson said, “I really appreciate all you’ve been doing for the town already.”
New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering Jones noted that Reed had served for more than 20 years as medical director.
Citing parts of a statement from Reed, Pickering Jones said that in that span, Reed “worked for six selectmen and three directors of health.”
“In that regard, he would like to add that in his opinion, Jenn [Eielson] has been an innovative and outstanding guardian of the town’s public health, one of the best experiences he’s ever had,” Pickering Jones said. “It has been his pleasure to serve the town of New Canaan, in which Janet and he lived for 30 years, raised and schooled over three children. All in all, it was an outstanding experience that they both cherished. Ultimately, they moved to Southport to be close to their three grandchildren and wish the best to the town of New Canaan.”
Eielson thanked Reed “for everything he’s done over the years, especially during COVID.”
“He and his wife are both instrumental during COVID,” she said. “So we appreciate that and look forward to partnering with Jamie even more.”