CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Charleston-Kanawha Board of Health offered its executive director's job this evening to a Vanderbilt University professor with a public health background.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Vanderbilt and Meharry College in Nashville, has until Dec. 15 to decide whether to accept the Health Department's top post.

Health board members, who voted unanimously to hire Gupta over another finalist, believe he will accept the job.

"He's a visionary," said health board President Brenda Isaac, who planned to notify Gupta of the offer late today or Friday. "This is his passion. He wants to make our health department a model for the rest of the country."

Gupta, who has a master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has never headed a public health department.

However, he worked as a physician and acting director of an AIDS clinic in Huntsville, Ala., from 2004 to 2007.

"He's done a lot of public health projects," Isaac said. "He's going to be a good fit here."

The board authorized Isaac to negotiate Gupta's salary, which will range from $105,000 to $185,000 a year. Former health chief Dr. Kerry Gateley, who resigned in May, earned $165,000 a year

Dr. Rahul Gupta, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Vanderbilt and Meharry College in Nashville, has until Dec. 15 to decide whether to accept the Health Department's top post.

Health board members, who voted unanimously to hire Gupta over another finalist, believe he will accept the job.

"He's a visionary," said health board President Brenda Isaac, who planned to notify Gupta of the offer late today or Friday. "This is his passion. He wants to make our health department a model for the rest of the country."

Gupta, who has a master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has never headed a public health department.

However, he worked as a physician and acting director of an AIDS clinic in Huntsville, Ala., from 2004 to 2007.

"He's done a lot of public health projects," Isaac said. "He's going to be a good fit here."

The board authorized Isaac to negotiate Gupta's salary, which will range from $105,000 to $185,000 a year. Former health chief Dr. Kerry Gateley, who resigned in May, earned $165,000 a year

Isaac said she spoke to Gupta's superiors earlier this week, and they gave him rave reviews.

"They want to keep him," Isaac said.

If Gupta accepts the job, board members expect him to work to raise the Health Department's visibility.

"We don't just want someone to take care of the day-to-day things," Isaac said. "We want someone looking to do more to promote health in this area."

If Gupta declines the take the post, health board members plan to offer the director's job to Dr. Janice Carson, a former Richmond, Va., health director.

Gateley, who also worked in Nashville before coming to Charleston, served as the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department's director for five years. He resigned last spring amid a squabble over moving the Health Department to make way for a new downtown hotel.

The hotel's developers have since withdrawn their plans. Gateley's wife, Dr. Laura Gateley, is serving as the Health Department's interim director.