Elizabeth Hernandez will move from interim to permanent command of San Diego County's Health and Human Services Agency on Friday, Oct. 2. Her appointment as deputy chief administrative officer ends a temporary period that began in October 2025 and puts her over departments delivering public health, housing, benefits, aging and child-welfare services.
The scope is unusually broad. HHSA includes Aging and Independence Services, Child and Family Well-Being, Housing and Community Development, Public Health Services and Self-Sufficiency Services. County officials say roughly one in three residents receives an agency service in a year. That makes the appointment an operating decision affecting intake lines, contracts, clinics and casework, not simply a change of title.
Hernandez joined the county in 2016 as assistant director of Public Health Services and became that department's director in 2021. The promotion keeps an internal administrator who has managed through the public-health side of the organization. Before county employment, she was a vice president at Neighborhood House Association, a large San Diego nonprofit with social-service and community programs.
The county said a national search generated more than 200 applications. Its announcement did not identify the search firm, disclose the cost of the recruitment, name finalists or publish the salary attached to the position. Those omissions limit an outside assessment of how the field was narrowed and what conditions accompanied the final offer.
Hernandez holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Azusa Pacific University and master's and doctoral degrees in dual clinical and industrial-organizational psychology from Alliant International University in San Diego. She also serves or has served on state, regional and binational public-health boards, including an advisory group connected to California's Office of Binational Border Health.
That background meets an agency whose responsibilities cross institutional lines. A disease investigation may require coordination with hospitals and schools. Housing programs depend on federal and state rules as well as county money. Benefits access turns on eligibility systems and staffing. Child-welfare work carries court deadlines and safety obligations. The deputy chief must align those operations while reporting through the county's central administration.
The appointment also places one administrator above programs with very different public records. Some services publish dashboards and outbreak notices; others are visible mainly through budget documents, contracts or individual case decisions protected by privacy law. A coherent accountability plan has to respect those limits without turning confidentiality into a reason that residents cannot assess system performance.
Permanent status also changes accountability. Hernandez has already had nearly a year to work in the interim role, so the early record is not a blank slate. Supervisors and the public can compare future performance against the systems she inherited and the choices made during the temporary appointment. Useful measures include service delays, public-health response times, contract performance and whether residents can reach programs without cycling through departments.
The county announcement emphasized experience and continuity but set no first-year targets. Hernandez now has the position; the next public record should show what she intends to change, how resources will follow those priorities and which results the Board of Supervisors will review. In an agency touching a third of the county, management claims become credible only when residents can see them in access and outcomes.