This afternoon Kansas City Health Department Director Dr. Rex Archer announced his plans to retire effective August 4, surrounded by colleagues from his department and the City.

“So, I want to be clear, to me this is more than a retirement announcement,” Archer started. “This is really an introduction, or in some cases, a reminder for everybody that the Health Department is here and has your back. Just because I may be formally officially leaving August 1, doesn’t mean we’re not still there.”

Exactly two years ago today, when Archer turned 65, he and his wife sat down to discuss his retirement from the health department, thinking about grandkids, working on his book about public health leadership, and all the other things retirement brings.

“Not knowing that COVID-19 was coming, we had originally picked the end of December 2020, and obviously, I couldn’t walk away at that time,” Archer said. “It’s been an interesting challenge.”

He’s had another passion in the realm of public health, education, which he plans to pursue after retiring from the City. Archer is having conversations with universities about future teaching opportunities, and said he may start as soon as August 1.

Sometimes coming into an organization and leaving an organization looks similar, Archer explained, showing the declaration of an emergency response to HIV/AIDS the department put out his first year on the job. 

“When I came here 23 years ago, we issued a declaration of an emergency response because of how HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases were starting to explode and are Black and brown populations in Kansas City,” Archer said. “That can lead to the next year, the first ever Minority Health Status Report, where we actually identified the differences in the inequities and injustices that were occurring among our minority populations that led to the formation of a health commission which now is a one of our six chartered commissions for the City.”

He followed his calling to public health in the 1980s, when the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the tobacco epidemic were at the forefront, and helped the department to expand its focus to equity, violence prevention, safety in housing and food, contagious diseases and immunizations.

“Not everyone has the opportunity to come back to the city in which they grew up to serve,” Dr. Archer said. “I wouldn’t trade these past 23 years for anything. But I need to make clear that nothing improves in public health through one individual. It’s the entire team; it’s the Health Department; it’s our elected officials, media and other partners. When we decide to work together we can make a difference.”

He recognized his staff, many of whom he recruited, worked with and watched flourish over his 23 years with the department. 

“Dr. Archer, as he noted, is someone who has served this city for over a generation, going through a number of different challenges and focuses we’ve had, as we’ve confronted epidemics, healthcare, food safety and control, Rex Archer has been a leader among health directors, not just in our metro or in our region or in Missouri, but throughout the country,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said. 

The mayor recalled when he was first elected to City Council, that Archer made time for each council member for whatever questions they had about Kansas City’s healthcare and what they could do better. 

“He’s fought for us at the State Capitol and in Washington to make sure this once and for all – something that, tragically, we did not see happen before – that we truly event invest in public health, that we invest in and we support epidemiology, that we believe in and trust and have faith in science,” Lucas said. 

Dr. Archer completed his medical degree at the University of Kansas, and his General Preventive Medicine Public Health Residency and Master’s Degree in Public Health at the University of Michigan. He has been a primary leader in the adoption of health policies, such as protecting non-smokers from tobacco smoke in Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, and the Ford Motor Company, for which he received the Public Health Hero Award from Research America for his support of smoke-free legislation.

Throughout his 23 years of service to Kansas Citians as Director of Public Health, Dr. Rex Archer has built a Health Department all Kansas Citians can be proud of — a Department that has prioritized equitable healthcare delivery to all communities in Kansas City and has prioritized wrap-around services as part of its fundamental mission,” Lucas said. “In expanding the scope of the Kansas City Health Department over the past several decades, Dr. Archer and his team have focused on delivery of proper mental health services to help combat violent crime; have worked to ensure every Kansas City family has access to healthy meals; have launched a Healthy Homes program to help ensure all, regardless of socioeconomic status, may live in sanitary homes; and have continued to deliver testing, vaccines, and other vital means of healthcare to Kansas Citians who do not have an established relationship with a primary care physician.”

Lucas thanked Archer on behalf of the tens of hundreds of Kansas Citians and others, whether eating at a restaurant, a kid getting a vaccine, school looking to reopen or even looking to stop an outbreak.

“I’ve only had the privilege of working with Dr. Archer and his team for the past few months, but there’s no question that we’ve saved many lives because of the guidance and direction and support provided by the Health Department throughout this pandemic, and for years before and for years to come,” City Manager Brian Platt said. “I think that there’s no question, also, that Dr. Archer is one of the best health directors this city’s ever had and one of the best in the country. We have made significant progress in a lot of fields, and a lot of ways to better serve the people in the city because of the leadership we’re seeing at the health department.”

During Dr. Archer’s tenure, the accredited Kansas City Health Department was the only local health department to win the Local Health Department of the Year Award more than once from the National Association of City and County Health Officials. The health department’s work and commitment under Dr. Archer also earned the community a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize.

The City will begin a national search to fill this position in the coming weeks.