Levine is currently Pennsylvania’s secretary of health and a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine. She served as state general practitioner in 2015 and assistant secretary of health in 2017. Levine was confirmed as state health secretary in 2018 under the administration of Democratic Governor Tom Wolf.
Throughout his career, Levine wrote about the opioid crisis, LGBTQ drugs, medical marijuana, eating disorders and teen medicine. She graduated from Harvard College and Tulane University School of Medicine and completed her training in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
“Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the stable leadership and essential knowledge we need to help people overcome this pandemic – no matter their postal code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability – and meet the needs of public health in our country at this critical time and beyond, “said Biden in a statement. “It is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our government’s health efforts.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris praised Levine as “an outstanding public servant with knowledge and experience” for helping to contain the coronavirus pandemic and “protecting and improving the health and well-being of the American people”.