The 49-year-old director announced her resignation first to an early morning meeting of the Board of Health and then to a gathering of about 300 health department employees at the department's annual conference Wednesday.

"While the county has been endlessly embroiled in controversy, we have held our heads up high," she said. "This day is to wallow in our success."

The employees gave her a standing ovation.

A 27-year veteran of the health department, with the last three years as director, Pavey by all accounts took a demoralized and scattered department, consolidated its services and breathed new life into it. She took the department through water fluoridation, smoking bans in public places and, perhaps most significantly, the Olympics.

"You're going to be missed, and you're going to be a legend," Board of Health member Tom Guinney said.

Pavey was the first non-medical doctor to head up the department, which board members said was a wise move.

With doctors at the top, "the focus is so narrow," said board member and Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini. "You (Pavey) set a standard of a much wider view. You cast a much wider net."

"She's done a wonderful job," Workman said. "It's a terrible loss to Salt Lake County."

Pavey has accepted a position with Utah-based TechniScan Medical Systems, which uses advanced imaging technology to provide non-invasive diagnoses of breast cancer.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com