(uskings.us) Rachel Leland Levine is an American pediatrician who has been the United States assistant secretary for health since March 26, 2021. She previously served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health from 2017 to 2021. She is one of only a few openly transgender government officials in the United States, and is the first to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation.
Levine was born on October 28, 1957, and is originally from Wakefield, Massachusetts. Levine is Jewish and grew up attending Hebrew school. Levine earned a high school diploma from Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Massachusetts. Levine graduated from Harvard College and the Tulane University School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics and fellowship in adolescent medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, New York.
Levine had a fellowship at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital from 1988 to 1993 where she trained in pediatrics. After moving from Manhattan to central Pennsylvania in 1993, she joined the staff at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. During her tenure there, she created Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s adolescent medicine division and eating disorders clinic. She was in charge of the latter when she was nominated for the position of Pennsylvania Physician General in 2015.
In July 2017, Governor Wolf appointed Levine as Secretary of Health, and she was unanimously confirmed. During 2020 and until January 23, 2021, Levine led the public health response on COVID-19 in Pennsylvania as the state secretary of health.
On February 13, 2021, President Joe Biden formally nominated Levine to be assistant secretary for health. On March 24, the Senate voted 52–48, with two Republicans joining all members of the Democratic caucus, to confirm her nomination. She is the first openly transgender person to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation; earlier transgender federal officials like Amanda Simpson held offices that did not require Senate confirmation.
According to en.wikipedia; source of photos: internet
