September 7, 2021
Media Contact: Brookie Crawford, public information officer, Central Region, brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov
Piedmont Health District Welcomes New Health Director
(CREWE, Va.) — The Virginia Department of Health welcomes Maria Almond, M.D., MPH as the new health director for the Piedmont Health District. Dr. Almond will assume the role effective October 9.
“We are excited to have Dr. Almond join our team,” said Sulola Adekoya, M.D., MPH, acting director of the Piedmont Health District. “As a practicing psychiatrist in the area, she will bring a community wellness perspective to the Piedmont Health District.”
A current member of the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Dr. Almond has been serving as a rural psychiatrist for Centra Medical Group in Farmville since 2015. Previously, she served on faculty with the University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry, where she was the clinical director for the Psych-Oncology Clinic and on staff with Counseling and Psychological Services for University of Michigan students.
Dr. Almond received her psychiatric training at Duke University Medical Center during which time she also pursued research in Tanzania as an inaugural Duke Global Health Fellow. She obtained her master of public health from the University of North Carolina and attended Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Adeloya has been serving as the acting director of Piedmont Health District since February. She will return to her role as the community health services medical director. To ease the transition into this role, Dr. Almond has started on a part-time basis as a physician consultant assisting with the COVID-19 activities.
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