RACHEL LELAND LEVINE, M.D. (1958 - )  is the Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health, having been appointed by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. She previously served as Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corp., becoming the first transgender four-star officer. She has also as professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders.

Dr. Levine was born October 28, 1957, in Wakefield, Massachusetts with the birth name of Richard L. Levine. Levine has one sister. 

She grew up attending Hebrew School.  Then graduated from Harvard College and Tulane University School of Medicine.   Levine completed her residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in adolescent medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center.  It was during this period that Dr. Levine married Martha Peaslee Levine with whom she has two children.  The couple was divorced in 2013.

Dr. Levine describes her transition as slow, deliberate and filled with research.  The transition began when she started seeing a therapist in 2001.  She announced herself as transgender in 2011.  Levine took the step of attending voice lessons so she would sound more like a woman.

In a statement at the time of her appointment to Assistant Secretary of Health President Bien said “Dr. Levine  will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic – no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability – and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond.”  “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health effort.”

 

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