Biden picks transgender woman for assistant health secretary. Who is Rachel Levine?
President-elect Joe Biden announced Tuesday he’s nominated Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine for assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Levine could now become the first openly transgender official to receive Senate confirmation.
The nomination comes the day before Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in. Their transition team has been announcing Cabinet picks and assembling White House staff since Biden was projected the winner of the presidential election in November.
Senators plan to hold hearings Tuesday for Biden’s national security picks but likely won’t have confirmed all of them by the time he takes office at noon Wednesday, The Washington Post reports. Senate confirmation of Biden’s picks has faced delays in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — and could be further slowed by President-Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Levine would also need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Who is Rachel Levine?
In her role as health secretary, which she has held since 2018, Levine has been leading Pennsylvania’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a release from the Biden-Harris Transition Team.
Levine was confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate three times to serve in her current role and as Pennsylvania’s physician general, a role she held from 2015 until 2017, the release says.
Levine is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and the Academy for Eating Disorders.
She’s also a pediatrics professor at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. Previously, she served as vice-chairperson for Clinical Affairs for the Department of Pediatrics and chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center.
“In addition to her recent posts, Dr. Levine is also an accomplished regional and international speaker, and author on the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders, and LGBTQ+ medicine,” the transition team wrote in the release.
Levine is a Harvard College and Tulane University School of Medicine graduate.
“Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond,” Biden said in a statement.
Harris called Levine a “remarkable public servant.”
“President-elect Biden and I look forward to working with her to meet the unprecedented challenges facing Americans and rebuild our country in a way that lifts everyone up,” she said in a statement.
The assistant secretary for health role
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health oversees the Health and Human Services Department’s public health offices and programs.
That includes presidential and secretarial advisory committees, 10 regional offices across the country, the Surgeon General office and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Additionally, the assistant secretary for health leads development of department-wide recommendations on public health policies.
Levine would join Biden’s pick to lead the department, Xavier Becerra, who would be the first Latino to run the department and also awaits Senate confirmation.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 6:09 AM with the headline "Biden picks transgender woman for assistant health secretary. Who is Rachel Levine?."
