SINGAPORE - Ms Wong Li Lin, executive director of the Public Hygiene Council (PHC), will be stepping down from her role after less than a year in the job.

Her last day is on May 3. She assumed the job of running the PHC secretariat at the National Environment Agency in September 2017.

PHC chairman Edward D'Silva confirmed with The Straits Times on Thursday (April 26) Ms Wong's departure but declined to comment further.

Ms Wong is best known for her role as Inspector Elaine Tay in Triple Nine, acting in two seasons of the local police drama which ran from 1995 to 1999. The 45-year-old has also been a professional ballerina, a pilates instructor, the boss of a media start-up, and a deputy director at a medical firm.

She is also a single mother of two children - daughter Sage, 13, and son Jonas, 11. She is divorced from Allan Wu, 45, a Singapore-based American-born Chinese actor-host.

When asked about the reasons behind leaving PHC, Ms Wong declined to comment.

The Public Hygiene Council was launched in 2011 to promote good hygiene practices and improve personal and public hygiene standards in Singapore, among other things.

Mr N. Sivasothi, coordinator of the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore, was disappointed to hear that Ms Wong is leaving PHC.

"Ms Wong injected energy and a freshness to our collaboration when she joined," he said. "Her corporate leadership in cutting to the core of the problems and expediting initiatives to manage resources well, like reducing the wastage of single use tools for cleanups, was a boost to the community."

In an interview with ST five weeks into her role last year, Ms Wong said that her passions were in educating, promoting wellness and media.

She had no academic or work experience in the area of public hygiene before she took on the job at PHC.