Linsey Spoelstra has stepped in as the new Marion County Public Heath Director.

Spoelstra replaces Kim Dorn, who retired at the end of 2024. Spoelstra was hired by public health as the financial coordinator in 2018, then stepped away for a year and a half to work for a community action agency in Ottumwa, before coming back to Marion County Public Health in 2020 as a financial manager and as a contract coordinator when they received the supplemental workforce grant. Spoelstra will remain the financial coordinator, in addition to taking on the director role as well. Spoelstra tells KNIA/KRLS Radio that she wants to continue serving the people of Marion County in the best way possible in her new role.

“The public health agency and especially our agency is good size. I know it’s smaller than it has been but I think we do a really good job of caring for our community. That is where I want to see us go also. We no longer have some of the programs that we used to have and I would like to see some of those come back here. There are other opportunities that we could apply for and programs that we could have to better serve the people who live here. That is what I want to see, is that the people who live here are being served well by us.”

Hear more from Spoelstra on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.