TOPEKA — Lee Norman stepped down Thursday from his high-profile cabinet post as the chief medical officer in Kansas, where he managed the state’s response to COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
His departure from Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration follows months of conversations between Norman and her office about whether he was ready to leave state government. Norman retreated from public view in June following a tense exchange with the governor’s chief of staff, who wanted Norman to stay in his lane and avoid sensitive political issues when speaking to news reporters.
As secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Norman stood alongside the governor during frequent news briefings early in the pandemic to deliver updates on the spread of the novel coronavirus and a desperate scramble to secure personal protective equipment. He championed the science behind recommendations for wearing a mask and social distancing.
“From the first confirmed case until today, Dr. Norman has played a vital role within this administration to provide guidance and help steer our state’s response to the virus,” Kelly said in a statement Friday. “His and his team’s work to keep Kansans safe during this once-in-a-century public health crisis has cemented his place as the most consequential secretary of health and environment in Kansas history.”
Deputy KDHE secretary Ashley Goss will serve as interim secretary in Norman’s absence. Ximena Garcia, a physician who has advised the governor on vaccine equity, will serve as acting state health officer and Medicaid medical director. Marci Nielsen also announced Thursday she was stepping down as chief COVID-19 adviser to the governor, effective Dec. 3.
Kelly is expected to name a new candidate for health secretary in the coming weeks, ahead of the start of the regular session in January.
“I want to thank Governor Kelly for the privilege of serving the people of Kansas during this unique, challenging, and important moment in our state’s history,” Norman said. “I could not be more proud of each and every staff member at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. For the last two years they have gone above and beyond facing unimaginable circumstances to create and execute the framework of the Kansas COVID-19 response strategy.”
Norman, who is 69 and doesn’t plan to retire, had served as KDHE secretary since Kelly took office in 2019. Previously, he was the chief medical officer for the University of Kansas Health System, and his experience included dealing with the Ebola virus in 2014 and H1N1 in 2009. He also had deployed to the Middle East as a colonel in the Kansas Army National Guard and served as senior medical commander to more than 12,000 soldiers.
As health secretary, he appeared at news conferences in a white coat, briefly gaining national attention at the start of the pandemic for his resemblance to Col. Sanders. His response: “No finger-lickin’!”
The GOP-led Legislature leaned on Norman for public health guidance in the days after the virus was detected in Kansas in March 2020. Within weeks, Republicans soured on him — in part because of pointed comments Norman made about lawmakers in late-night tweets. The governor’s office at one point took away Norman’s control of his Twitter account and later told him to refuse national media requests.
Kansas Reflector learned of Norman’s departure as part of an inquiry into internal communications between Norman and Will Lawrence, the governor’s chief of staff.
The governor’s office began talking with Norman in June about whether he should step down as KDHE secretary. Those talks were delayed by the rapid spread of the delta variant, but Norman remained absent from the public spotlight, even as COVID-19 case numbers began to multiply in July and August. During those months, KDHE issued as many news releases about algae blooms in Kansas lakes as it did about the delta variant.
On July 28, Kansas Reflector filed a request under the Kansas Open Records Act for emails between Norman and Lawrence. Those emails were provided at 4 p.m. Thursday, an hour before Norman’s departure became official.
The emails reveal Lawrence ordered Norman to stop speaking publicly in early June, at a time when the governor’s office was trying to persuade Republican lawmakers to extend the emergency declaration for COVID-19. The declaration allowed the Kansas National Guard and other agencies to assist in the operations of managing the pandemic.
Norman undermined efforts to extend the emergency, Lawrence believed, by speaking out of turn during a University of Kansas Health System news briefing. KU Health has conducted daily briefings throughout the pandemic, inviting numerous guests. Norman appeared regularly.
