Joshua Solomon is reporting for the Times Union that Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Sept. 29 the appointment of Dr. Mary T. Bassett as the state's new health commissioner. Bassett served as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2014 to 2018. Hochul cast the decision as a commitment to "tested leadership and experience to improve health equity. ...Dr. Bassett is both a highly regarded public health expert and an exemplary public servant," she said in a statement. Bassett will succeed Dr. Howard Zucker, who resigned last week. Zucker had agreed to stay on until a successor was named. According to the governor's office, Bassett brings decades of experience to the position, most recently serving as the director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University as well as the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. Bassett is taking over a health department that has staffing shortages at key positions. There are about 3,300 employees of the Department of Health, which is down by about 130 from last year, but around the same as 2019, according to numbers provided by the agency. The health department became embroiled in controversies during the COVID-19 crisis, mostly involving issues related to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top members of his administration. There are pending investigations of some of those matters, including allegations that Cuomo, with Zucker's assistance, had directed priority coronavirus testing for members of Cuomo's family and people with connections to the chief executive. Read the full story in the Times Union.