Nicole Alexander-Scott is an American infectious disease specialist who served as Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health from April 2015 to January 2022. She was the first African-American to serve in the role.

Education

Nicole Alexander-Scott grew up in Park Slope,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City. Her mother worked as a nurse and her father died when she was 11. Alexander-Scott graduated from an all-girls Catholic high school and attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

’s College of Human Ecology. She graduated from Cornell with a B.Sc. in Human Development and Family Studies in 1997. She earned her M.D. from the

State University of New York Upstate Medical University The State University of New York Upstate Medical University (SUNY Upstate) is a public medical school in Syracuse, New York. Founded in 1834, Upstate is the 15th oldest medical school in the United States and is the only medical school in Central ...

in 2001 and completed her residency at

Stony Brook University Hospital Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH), previously known as Stony Brook University Medical Center, is a nationally ranked, 695-bed non-profit, research, and academic medical center located in Stony Brook, New York, providing tertiary care for the ...

, in

Stony Brook, New York Stony Brook is a political subdivisions of New York#Hamlet, hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, Town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the No ...

. In 2005, she moved to Rhode Island to complete an infectious disease fellowship at the

Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University The Warren Alpert Medical School (formerly known as Brown Medical School, previously known as Brown University School of Medicine) is the medical school of Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Originally established in 1811, it ...

. In 2011, she earned a Masters of Public Health degree from the

Brown University School of Public Health The Brown University School of Public Health is the public health school of Brown University, a private research university in Rhode Island. It is located along the Providence River, down the hill and about a quarter mile from Brown's central ...

Career

Alexander-Scott served as a consultant to the Rhode Island Department of Health during the

2009 swine flu pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, is the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Span ...

. She was appointed Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health on April 16, 2015, succeeding Dr. Michael Fine. From 2018 to 2019, she served as president of the

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) represents the public health agencies of all 50 states in the United States, the District of Columbia, the five U.S. territories, and the three freely associated states. ASTHO membe ...

. Alexander-Scott has played an active role in the Rhode Island Department of Health's response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Rhode Island The COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. state of Rhode Island is part of an ongoing worldwide viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of August 18, 2022, ...

. In December 2020, she tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Alexander-Scott was reappointed in 2020 to a five-year term. However, in January 2022, she announced her resigned from the state Department of Health. James McDonald succeeded her as interim director of the Department in late January 2022.

Honors and awards

* Doctorate of Humane Letters, Brown University, 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander-Scott, Nicole State cabinet secretaries of Rhode Island African-American state cabinet secretaries Cornell University College of Human Ecology alumni State University of New York Upstate Medical University alumni Brown University alumni Brown University faculty American women epidemiologists American epidemiologists People from Park Slope Year of birth missing (living people) Living people