There’s been a shakeup in leadership at the Charlie Norwood VA Health Care System.
Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced Augusta VA Executive Director Robin Jackson and Interim Deputy Director Kimberley Booker were being detailed to another facility in Atlanta, effective immediately, a VA spokesman confirmed.
The VA has offered no specific reason for the reassignments, but said in a statement they are “temporary, while the VA completes an investigation of the leadership in Augusta.”
Replacing Jackson as acting director is Augusta Deputy Director Oscar Rodriguez, a retired Army officer formerly with the Defense Information Systems Agency.
While he joined the Augusta VA in 2023, Rodriguez recently concluded a yearlong assignment as acting director of the Columbia, S.C. VA Health Care System.
Replacing Booker as acting deputy director is Lovetta Ford, who joins the facility from the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where she served as deputy director.
VA spokesman William Martin said the Augusta VA is “committed to delivering the highest quality care and service to veterans while fostering a positive and supportive work environment for its employees.”
He said under new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas Collins, “VA is challenging the status quo to find new and better ways of helping VA beneficiaries.”
However, the Augusta leadership changes are not connected to the proposed 15% workforce reduction at the VA Collins described earlier this month, Martin said.
National Nurses United, a union that represents VA nurses, was cautiously optimistic about the leadership changes in Augusta.
“The previous administrators refused to respect our concerns and even engage in meaningful dialogue on our proposed solutions,” said Tamika Kendrick, associate director of the group’s VA division. “We look forward to working with the new administration on the numerous challenges facing the VA’s patients and the nurses and healthcare workers who take care of them.”
Jackson recently appeared before the Augusta Commission to dispute claims made by VA nurses about poor conditions for patients following Hurricane Helene.
The Augusta VA Health Care System employed about 2,700 employees who served more than 50,000 individual veteran patients each year in Georgia and South Carolina, according to a news release from February.
