January 18, 2015
PA Equality /for PhillyVoice
Dr. Rachel Levine will serve on the cabinet of Pa. Governor-elect Tom Wolf
Levine is currently a professor of Pediatrics and Psychology at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where she also serves as chief of the division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders.
Dr. Levine's duties as physician general will include serving as an advisor to the governor and secretary of the Department of Health, Phillymag.com reports. Specifically, she will be focusing on medical and public health-related issues.
Equality PA, an LGBT advocacy organization on whose board Dr. Levine serves, congratulated its member and gave encouragement on Twitter.
Congrats Dr. Rachel Levine, Equality PA Board Member, on her nomination to be Physician General of PA! #PAEquality http://t.co/dwTbSJoDfb
— EqualityPennsylvania (@EqualityPA) January 17, 2015
The Governor-elect provided the following statement about Dr. Levine's nomination:
Dr. Levine is an expert in pediatrics and psychiatry. While at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Dr. Levine led the initiation of a Division of Adolescent Medicine for the care of complex teens with medical and psychological problems. She also started the Penn State Hershey Eating Disorders Program, which offers multidisciplinary treatment for children, adolescents, and adults with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In her role as physician general, Dr. Levine will advise the governor and secretary of the Department of Health on medical and public health-related issues.
While Wolf's office could not provide a definitive answer, Dr. Levine, a Middletown resident, is thought to be the first transgender woman to take on the role of physician general.
