In this January 2017 file photo, KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier addresses a legislative committee regarding the federal government's decision at the time not to renew a waiver for KanCare, the state's privatized Medicaid program.

Topeka ? Gov. Sam Brownback announced Thursday that Dr. Susan Mosier will step down as secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, effective Jan. 5.

“It has been my great privilege to serve the people of Kansas,” Mosier said in a news release. “I would like to thank Governor Brownback for giving me this opportunity to serve our fellow Kansans and to lead an amazing team of passionate, dedicated professionals.”

Mosier is an ophthalmologist who took over as Medicaid director in 2013, the year the administration privatized that program under the name KanCare. She was named KDHE secretary in December 2014 following the resignation of the previous secretary, Dr. Robert Moser.

During her time as secretary, KDHE went through a tumultuous period when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initially rejected the state’s application last year to renew a waiver that allows the state to operate KanCare as a privatized system.

During the past year, however, that renewal request was eventually granted, and the agency is now preparing to launch what it is calling KanCare 2.0 starting in 2019.

In this January 2017 file photo, KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier addresses a legislative committee regarding the federal government's decision at the time not to renew a waiver for KanCare, the state's privatized Medicaid program.

The news release from Brownback’s office did not give a reason for her departure, but it did say that Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer will name her replacement in the near future. Colyer is waiting to become governor at any time, pending U.S. Senate confirmation of Brownback to a diplomatic post in the Trump administration.

KDHE spokesman Jerry Kratochvil said Mosier felt it was a good time to make a transition and that she plans to pursue other opportunities.