Nancy Snyderman Resigns as NBC’s Chief Medical Editor - NYTimes.com

Dr. Nancy Snyderman has stepped down from her post as NBC’s chief medical editor, following a controversy that erupted last fall when she broke a self-imposed quarantine after returning from covering the Ebola outbreak in Liberia.

Dr. Snyderman drew criticism in October when she was seen in public in New Jersey days after promising to quarantine herself for 21 days. While in Liberia, she had worked with Ashoka Mukpo, a camerman who had contracted the Ebola virus.

After an extended absence from television, Dr. Snyderman returned to the air in December, but the incident tainted her relationship with NBC, according to a person close to Dr. Snyderman.

In a statement Thursday, Dr. Snyderman said that she was leaving NBC to take a faculty position at a “major U.S. medical school.” Dr. Snyderman, who had worked for NBC for nine years, previously worked as a consumer education executive at Johnson & Johnson and as a medical correspondent for ABC.

“Covering the Ebola epidemic last fall in Liberia, and then becoming part of the story upon my return to the U.S., contributed to my decision that now is the time to return to academic medicine,” Dr. Snyderman said in a statement.

The decision was said to be mutual. In a statement, NBC said, “Throughout her career with NBC News, Dr. Nancy Snyderman has provided her expertise on countless health and medical topics that are vitally important to our audience.”

Dr. Snyderman’s departure is the latest shake-up at the NBC News group in recent weeks, as the network has been in engulfed in crisis involving the news anchor Brian Williams. Last week, NBCUniversal hired Andrew Lack to lead its news division, the first step in a major restructuring of the executive ranks. Mr. Williams, meanwhile, is on a six-month suspension after he admitted that he had misled viewers with a story about a helicopter incident in Iraq.

Mr. Lack officially starts in April but was aware of Dr. Snyderman’s departure from the network.

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