Dr. Ezike

Who is this Dr. Ezike we keep hearing over the radio and TV every day, standing alongside Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and having the unenviable task of telling the good people of this state how many people have contracted the COVID-19 virus and how many we have lost in the past day?

Here's a brief bio that I came across on the web in of all places, the website of the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority:

Ngozi Ezike is acting director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). Dr. Ezike is a board-certified internist and pediatrician who comes to IDPH from the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH), where she served for more than 15 years. She also was medical director at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. Prior to joining CCDPH, Dr. Ezike served as Austin Health Center medical director where she actively engaged with the community on a variety of health initiatives. She also has delivered inpatient care at Stroger Hospital and primary and preventive care in community and school-based clinics. 

Dr. Ezike is a national policy advisor on juvenile correctional health topics. She received a medical degree from University of California at San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University. Dr. Ezike also holds a management certificate from Harvard Business School and is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Rush University.

Impressive credentials indeed, clearly this is a person who should be listened to, and is exactly where we need her to be as the voice of authority and reason to the people of this state, offering in a very comforting voice, at least in my opinion, hope for the future, and above all, the facts.

And she does this in English and Spanish.  

Beyond this I know absolutely nothing about Dr. Ezike, there's no Wikipedia entry on her, at least not yet, nor any easily tracked profile about her from any of the local news outlets. This to me is a bit surprising as in our media saturated society, practically anyone who gets their 15 minutes of fame for any stupid reason gets their insignificant story and their mug plastered all over the web.

Yet Dr. Ezike has gotten at least five minutes of statewide coverage every day since the governor declared his shelter-in-place order to this state over one month ago. I'm not going to do the math, but she's gotten way more than her allotted 15 minutes.

My guess is that she's perfectly fine with that, simply doing what she she sees as her role as a public service with no other agenda, keeping us informed in as clear, calm, and compassionate manner as anyone on God's green earth could possibly do.

Nothing more, and nothing less. 

A grateful state thanks you so much Dr. Ezike.