Nassau health chief resigning abruptly

Nassau Health Commissioner Maria Torroella Carney has submitted her resignation, nearly two years before the expiration of her contract.

Her last day in the $175,000-a-year job will be July 15, she said in a letter Monday. Carney had served three years and three months of a five-year contract.

Carney said Tuesday she thinks she has accomplished what she intended when she took on the job, and she wants to return to geriatric medicine.

"I've had offers that I'm considering, but I did not want to go to full discussions while in this job," Carney said in an interview. "I made the county executive -- who has been nothing but a gentleman to me since taking office -- aware of this weeks ago."

Carney, an expert in internal and geriatric medicine, had been director of the hospice and palliative care program at the Glengariff Health Care Center in Glen Cove when County Executive Thomas Suozzi appointed her commissioner.

She has also been affiliated with Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola and had been an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center.

Nassau Board of Health chairwoman Diana Coleman, of Roosevelt, called Carney, "a great commissioner, dedicated and very competent."

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said Deputy Commissioner Larry Eisenstein will serve as acting commissioner.