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Rachel L. Levine (/ləˈviːn/; born October 28, 1957) is an American pediatrician who has served as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health since 2017. She is a Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, and previously served as the Pennsylvania Physician General from 2015 to 2017. She is one of only a handful of openly transgender government officials in the United States. President Joe Biden has nominated Levine to be Assistant Secretary for Health. She would be the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

Early life and education

Levine was born on October 28, 1957, and is originally from Wakefield, Massachusetts. She is Jewish and grew up attending Hebrew school, recalling that while she was growing up, her rabbi did not talk about LGBTQ issues. She earned her 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.

Career

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

In July 2017, Governor Wolf appointed Levine as Secretary of Health, and she was unanimously confirmed. In January 2021, then-President-elect Joe Biden announced that he is nominating Levine to be the Assistant Secretary for Health. If confirmed, she will be the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

COVID-19 pandemic

As the state secretary of health, Levine 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.

Levine removed her mother from a personal care home, after creating a policy whereby nursing homes throughout the Commonwealth would readmit residents testing positive for COVID-19 after they were declared healthy enough to leave the hospital. Levine has stated that personal care homes (as opposed to nursing homes) do not fall under the jurisdiction of her own agency.

Advocacy

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

Personal life

Levine has two children, David and Dayna. She transitioned in 2011. Levine and her ex-wife, Martha Peaslee Levine, divorced in 2013.

See also

• List of transgender people

References

1. "LGBT History Month — October 22: Rachel Levine". Q-Notes. October 22, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
2. ^ Zezima, Katie (June 1, 2016). "Meet Rachel Levine, one of the very few transgender public officials in America". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 29, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
3. ^ Sullivan, Eileen (January 19, 2021). "Biden's pick for Health and Human Services role would be first transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
4. ^ "Biden picks transgender woman as assistant health secretary". AP NEWS. January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
5. "LGBT History Month — October 22: Rachel Levine". Q-Notes. October 22, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
6. Goodin-Smith, Oona (January 19, 2021). "What to know about Rachel Levine, the history-making Pa. health official tapped for Biden administration". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
7. "Jewish woman welcomed as transgender, state's new physician general". The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh. June 24, 2015. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
8. "Dr. Rachel Levine '75 Offers Timely Message for Students". Belmont Hill School. October 24, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
9. ^ Choi-Schagrin, Winston (March 20, 2020). "A 2018 Q&A with Dr. Rachel Levine, now leading state's coronavirus response [from The Caucus archives]". LancasterOnline. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
10. ^ "Meet the Transgender Doctor Leading Pennsylvania's COVID-19 Response". www.advocate.com. March 31, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
11. ^ "Who is Rachel Levine? Pa. health secretary offers calm, reassurance amid pandemic". PA Post. March 19, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
12. "Health Secretary Rachel Levine's removal of mom from care home amid epidemic draws scrutiny". pennlive. May 14, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
13. "more about me www.writerdoc.com". December 29, 2008. Archived from the original on December 29, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
14. ^ "Inside Tulane Med". tmaaarchive.tulane.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
15. "resume www.writerdoc.com". December 29, 2008. Archived from the original on December 29, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
16. "How Do You Measure Your Life?". Psychology Today. Retrieved May 22, 2020.

Publications

• Fassbender, Laura; Zander, Gwendolyn B.; Levine, Rachel L. (July 2019). "Beyond rescue, treatment, and prevention: understanding the broader impact of the opioid epidemic at the state level". The American journal of managed care. 25 (13 Suppl): S239 – S240. PMID 31361432.
• Ashburn, Michael A.; Levine, Rachel L. (October 1, 2017). "Pennsylvania State Core Competencies for Education on Opioids and Addiction". Pain Medicine. 18 (10): 1890–1894. doi:10.1093/pm/pnw348. PMID 28339890.
• Mahr, Fauzia; Farahmand, Pantea; Bixler, Edward O.; Domen, Ronald E; Moser, Eileen M.; Nadeem, Tania; Levine, Rachel L.; Halmi, Katherine A. (May 2015). "A national survey of eating disorder training: National Survey of Eating Disorder Training". International Journal of Eating Disorders. 48 (4): 443–445. doi:10.1002/eat.22335. PMID 25047025.

External links

• Pennsylvania Secretary of Health profile

• Living people
• 1957 births
• State cabinet secretaries of Pennsylvania
• Harvard University alumni
• Tulane University alumni
• LGBT government ministers
• Transgender and transsexual politicians
• Transgender and transsexual physicians
• Transgender and transsexual women