Rachel Levine


Rachel L. Levine is an American pediatrician currently serving as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health. She also serves as Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. She was previously Pennsylvania's Physician General. She is one of only a handful of openly transgender government officials in the United States.

Early life and education

Levine is originally from Wakefield, Massachusetts. She is Jewish, grew up attending Hebrew School, and had a Bar Mitzvah. While growing up, she did not speak to her Rabbi about LGBT issues.
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.

Career

Mount Sinai Hospital

Levine had a fellowship at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital from 1988 to 1993 where she trained in pediatrics.

Penn State Hershey Medical Center

After moving from Manhattan to central Pennsylvania in 1993, she joined the staff at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. She had, by 2014, become a "top doctor" at the facility. During her tenure there, she had 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.

Physician General

In 2015, Levine was nominated by Governor-elect Tom Wolf to be Pennsylvania's Physician General. She served in this post until 2017.

Secretary of Health

In July 2017 Governor Wolf appointed Levine as Secretary of Health. She was unanimously confirmed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature.

Opioid epidemic

Levine signed an order that allowed law enforcement officers to carry the anti-overdose medication naloxone. She has credited the drug with saving the lives of almost 1,000 opioid users who had overdosed.

2020 coronavirus pandemic

As the state secretary of health, she leads the public health response on COVID-19 in Pennsylvania . She works closely on a daily basis with the FEMA director and leads a daily press briefing.
On March 21 Levine said during a press conference "A state-wide shelter in place was not out of the question.".
Controversy
Levine was accused of removing her own mother from a personal care home, after creating a policy whereby nursing homes throughout the Commonwealth would readmit residents testing positive for Coronavirus after they were declared healthy enough to leave the hospital. Levine has stated that personal care homes do not fall under the jurisdiction of her own agency.
As of May 14, 2020, about two-thirds of Pennsylvania's 3,800 COVID-19 deaths were among residents of long-term care facilities.

Advocacy

Levine has served as a board member of Equality Pennsylvania, an LGBT rights organization.

Personal life

She was previously married and has two children, David and Dayna. She made the decision to transition in 2011. Levine and her ex-wife, Martha Peaslee Levine, divorced in 2013 but remain "good friends".
Levine is an avid fan of the New England Patriots.