Dr. James (Jim) Schamadan passed away on April 19 at the age of 98. He was the ADHS director twice.
He was a physician, an engineer, and a healthcare executive who helped build Scottsdale Memorial Healthcare and served as its CEO through the mid-1990s. From there, he was appointed ADHS Director. He served twice including a later stint as an interim director in the late 1990s.
The exact dates are unclear because he was a pre-internet director.
James Louis Schamadan Obituary – The Arizona Republic
Schamadan’s background in building and running healthcare organizations likely shaped how he approached the job (I’m reading between the lines here). He came from the provider side, with experience in operations and infrastructure, and stepped into a department dealing with complex system changes and ongoing legal requirements.
I met Dr. Schamadan once, around 1999, when he was serving in his second stint as director in an interim capacity. I was working in environmental health at ADHS, and we were dealing with a situation in New River involving a house packed with dangerous explosives. The question was how to remove the hazard without putting the surrounding community at risk.
He struck me as extremely direct. In the end the team decided to carefully remove the explosives rather than burn the building down – a good call I think (that was during the Hull Administration).
Because his service came during a transitional period and because one of his stints as Director was interim there isn’t a deep public record of his tenure at least that I could find.
But that doesn’t mean the work wasn’t important. Arizona’s health system was in the middle of significant change, and ADHS needed steady leadership to navigate it.
Rest in peace Dr. Schamadan and thank you for your service.
