The Allen County Commissioners on June 13 appointed Candice Dysler to the Allen County Board of Health to fill the seat being vacated by Mary Hess.

County staff said Mary Hess is retiring from her position overseeing school nursing for Fort Wayne Community Schools (FWCS), and the county sought a replacement with school-nursing expertise given the public-health intersection with communicable disease transmission in schools. The name before the commissioners was Candice Dysler, who had taken over leadership of FWCS' school nursing program about a month earlier.

County staff noted state law generally calls for board of health members with medical or science backgrounds, and that the county has historically included nurses, healthcare administrators and other medically related professionals on the board. "They generally need to be... people in and around the medical or science field that can be helpful to the Department of Health," staff said. The commissioners moved to appoint Dysler; the motion was seconded and carried.

The appointment allows the Board of Health to continue having a representative knowledgeable in school nursing and communicable-disease issues affecting the student population served by FWCS.