Interview: Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli
New Jersey’s health commissioner is set to retire at the end of the summer. Judy Persichilli, a former nurse and hospital administrator, was thrust into the spotlight when the COVID-19 pandemic struck New Jersey in March 2020 and became the face of New Jersey’s response to the health crisis.
Persichilli has spent four years as the state’s top public health official. She talks with Briana Vannozzi.
An Emmy award-winning journalist, Briana Vannozzi serves as the anchor for NJ Spotlight News, the newsroom of NJ PBS. She's worked in several capacities since joining the news division in 2012, as interim anchor and senior correspondent after years of general assignment reporting as a multimedia journalist. Vannozzi began her television journalism career by cutting her teeth on New Jersey State House politics for New Jersey Network News, and later as a news radio correspondent at FM News 101.9 covering crime and politics in New York City. Her work has taken her to national presidential nominating conventions, Capitol Hill, up and down the East Coast and every corner of the Garden State. She's interviewed every New Jersey governor dating back to Jon Corzine and moderated numerous political debates and forums. Her work has also earned awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists and the Philadelphia Press Association. A Burlington County native, she's honored to be serving and covering her home state and raising her family there.
