Governor Mike Parson has named former Butler County resident Robert Knodell the acting director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) effective immediately.
Knodell has served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Parson since 2017, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
Over the past year, he has played an integral part in the state’s COVID-19 response efforts and taken a leading role in vaccine rollout and distribution in Missouri, the governor’s office said.
“As deputy chief of staff, Robert brings valuable knowledge and leadership experience to our team and the entire state of Missouri,” Parson said. “For more than a year, he has also played a leading role in Missouri’s COVID-19 response efforts, and I am more than confident in him to take over as acting director of the Department of Health and Senior Services.”
Parson accepted a letter of resignation from Dr. Randall Williams on Tuesday.
“Dr. Williams has been a huge asset to Missouri, especially this past year in dealing with COVID-19,” Parson said. “We greatly appreciate all the work he has done for the people of our state and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Knodell is a Poplar Bluff native whose father was a school superintendent, and mother was a guidance counselor and administrator.
Kitchen table discussions often involved public affairs and local, state and national issues in the news, he said. After graduating from Southeast Missouri State University with an accounting degree, Knodell began volunteering in political campaigns. From there, he landed a job in the state House of Representatives.
That’s where he met a new lawmaker, Parson.
“I was a staff person working on budget issues for the House when he was a member of the House. We developed a working relationship and a relationship that has continued since that time,” Knodell said recently in an interview with the Southeast Missourian. “When he became governor, he extended that opportunity to me at a time when the state needed leadership. I was honored to have the opportunity to join the administration, and we have been working hard every day since.”
Knodell has said the pandemic has been unlike the natural disasters state governments usually deal with.
“The crises that states often encounter are related to flooding or a tornado. ... They are regionalized, localized. Those are disasters that occur and then you spend time cleaning up and recovering from that,” he noted recently. “COVID-19 has been unprecedented and unique because it affects the entire state. It’s been ongoing, really, for the past year.”