VA shuffles top leaders in Pittsburgh as agency upends 'status quo'

The top two officials overseeing care for Pittsburgh-area veterans have been pulled from their posts and reassigned.

Donald Koenig is out as director of the Pittsburgh VA, a role he took in 2019 after more than two decades as a private health care executive. His tenure stopped a carousel of directors after a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the system and subsequent scandal more than a decade ago.

Ali Sonel, a cardiologist by training, was also ousted after a 14-year stint as chief of staff.

Both have been assigned new positions at the agency’s integrated care network covering parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, including Pennsylvania.

Prachi Asher, a biomedical engineer who has held leadership roles across multiple VA networks, was promoted to acting director from deputy director. Physician and University of Pittsburgh professor Patrick Strollo went from associate chief of staff for medicine service to acting chief of staff.

The leadership shuffle happened Aug. 7. Workers were informed shortly after, but given little explanation as to why it was happening.

Shelley Nulph, a Pittsburgh VA spokesperson, confirmed the shake-up to TribLive. It’s part of an effort under VA Secretary Doug Collins to challenge “the status quo to find new and better ways of serving veterans,” Nulph said.

Koenig and Asher declined to comment, deferring to Nulph.

Neither Sonel nor Strollo returned requests for comment.

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, sent a letter on Aug. 13 to Collins asking why Koenig and Sonel were removed from their positions and who ordered the change.

He set an Aug. 21 deadline for a reply. So far, nothing has come through, according to Deluzio’s office.

The office is also waiting for Collins to answer a letter questioning the abrupt cancellation of the agency’s regional town hall tour last month. The original Aug. 8 deadline on that letter was extended to Aug. 22 at the VA’s request.

It’s up to the VA secretary to pick the directors of individual systems, according to Philip Glover, national vice president of District 3 for the American Federation of Government Employees.

The union is the largest representing VA employees, though the agency voided collective bargaining agreements for more than 400,000 of its workers earlier this month.

The Pittsburgh VA has about 4,500 employees, including 1,200 nurses and 300 physicians. It covers a 13-county area across Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio with two hospitals and six clinics.