NBC News medical editor Nancy Snyderman resigns

Dr. Nancy Snyderman said Thursday that she’s leaving her job as chief medical editor for NBC News, six months after unleashing public anger for failing to observe a quarantine after covering the Ebola epidemic last fall.

Snyderman said that “becoming part of the story” after her trip to Liberia contributed to her decision to take a faculty job at a medical school.

“Every moment has been an honor,” said Snyderman, who has been at NBC for nine years after working previously at ABC News.

Snyderman was asked to observe a voluntary 21-day quarantine in her New Jersey home following her return from Liberia, where she briefly worked with Ashoka Mukpo, a cameraman who caught the virus and recovered after coming back to the U.S. for treatment.

But she was observed getting takeout food near her home, prompting New Jersey authorities to make her quarantine mandatory. NBC was flooded with angry comments about her actions, which als o angered her bosses.

After being told to lay low for a while, Snyderman returned to the air on Dec. 3 and apologized for her actions in an interview with Matt Lauer, saying she did not appreciate how frightened Americans were of the disease.

While she continued working after that, she never did another Ebola story for NBC News. Her last time on the air, on Feb. 22, was to report on peanut allergies for “Nightly News.”

Snyderman would not say where her new job would be.

“More needs to be done to communicate medicine and science to our viewers and citizens, especially in times of crisis, and with my experiences in the field and on air, that is going to be a priority for me,” she said.

NBC said in a statement that Snyderman has been a valuable voice, “and we wish her all the best.”

Her exit removes a distraction for new NBC News Group Chairman Andrew Lack, hired last week to bring order to the network after a string of embarrassments, includi ng Snyderman’s episode but most prominently the suspension of “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams.

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Television Writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.