HOAC Staff
Bruce Pomer, MPA
Bruce Pomer’s career in public health spans 34 years in state government and the nonprofit sector in Sacramento. Since 1989, Mr. Pomer has been owner of Pomer & Associates, a public health consulting and advocacy firm. He also is the Executive Director of the Health Officers Association of California (HOAC) and is currently directing California's emergency preparedness assessment of 61 local health departments. Mr. Pomer serves in a national leadership capacity as an active member of the National Association of City and County Health Officials. He was recently appointed to the national steering committee exploring accreditation of local health departments, chairing its work group on financing and incentives.
From 1983 to 1989, Mr. Pomer was Director of Governmental Affairs for HOAC. He also held a number of executive positions at the California State Department of Health Services from 1971 to 1983, including Chief of External Affairs and Chief of the Medi-Cal Field Services Section, where he supervised a staff of over 400 employees.
Mr. Pomer is the President of the Board of Trustees of the Los Rios Community College District, and a board member of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Sacramento City Parks and Recreation Commission, and the California Association of Nonprofits. He is past Chairman of the Sacramento County Democratic Central Committee and the Chamber of Commerce Education Committee.
Mr. Pomer received his A.B. Degree in Political Science from the University of California at Davis in 1971, and his Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California in 1977. He has been married to Anne Juzek Pomer for the past 35 years and has 3 children: Lisa (31), John (25), Christopher (18); and two grandchildren: Allison (3 years) and Anna (3 months). He was born September 30, 1949, in San Francisco and has been a resident of Sacramento since 1954, where he reunited with his twin brother, Roger Rosenberg, from whom he had been separated for 45 years. Roger and Bruce told their story to a national audience on the Oprah Winfrey show. Mr. Rosenberg is an international terrorism expert and a licensed private investigator.
Kat DeBurgh
After spending the summer of 1999 in Washington, DC with the prestigious Koch Summer Fellowship Program, Kat DeBurgh’s fate was sealed. She graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with a B.A. in politics in 2000 and immediately moved to Washington, DC, where she worked in drug policy reform for two and a half years. While there, she was actively involved in local politics. Working at a small non-profit organization allowed her to learn many skills: from managing an office to running a signature drive, from analyzing legislation to coordinating conferences.
Having now returned to her native California, Ms. DeBurgh has been working at the Health Officers Association of California since January, 2005. Again, the size of the organization allows great flexibility. Ms. DeBurgh answers the telephone, maintains the executive director’s schedule, and performs other administrative tasks. She also tracks legislation and writes many of HOAC’s letters, op-eds, and fact sheets.
Ms. DeBurgh is interested in soon obtaining a Masters Degree in Public Health.
