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Salary boost for doctor who’s the top medical advisor in state gov’t

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August 4th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The state medical director whose public profile has been elevated during the pandemic has gotten a big pay boost. Dr. Caitlin Pedati’s boss is Department of Human Services director Kelly Garcia, who is now the interim director of the Public Health Department, too. Garcia says she raised the medical director’s salary by nearly 45 percent for a variety of reasons — including new responsibilities for Dr. Pedati in the Department of Human Services.

Dr. Caitlin Pedati (File photo)

“This decision was really focused around retention,” Garcia says, “but also really focused around the job we’ve asked her to do in those dual roles.” Pedati has been the state epidemiologist as well as the state medical director since late 2018. Pedati’s new, 265-thousand dollar annual salary is higher than that of Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, her predecessor who retired nearly two years ago after 24 years in the job. Garcia says she’s quite comfortable with Pedati’s new salary compared to what other physicians in state government are making.

“I did poll a variety of other salaries for positions both internal to the Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Health as well as the Department of Corrections,” Garcia says, “and this salary adjustment is actually below what those other salaries are in comparison.” The Bleeding Heartland blog first reported Pedati’s salary adjustment, as well as the 55-thousand dollars Pedati was paid for overtime work this spring. Garcia says Pedati is not only being asked to be the state’s top clinician, she’s had to do her work in the spotlight and — in Garcia’s words — “under a microscope” during the pandemic.

“She’s worked at the CDC,” Garcia says. “She’s worked in another state and she is paramount to our ability to sustain this response over the course of the next year.” Pedati worked in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services before taking the job in Iowa’s Department of Public Health.