In This Biography
Rachel Levine Biography, Age, Family, Siblings, Spouse, and Net Worth.
Who is Rachel Levine?
Rachel Leland Levine is an American professional pediatrician and a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has been the United States assistant secretary for health since March 26, 2021.
Levine is a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine and formerly worked as the Pennsylvania physician general from 2015 to 2017. Later she worked as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health from 2017 to 2021, She is among the few openly transgender government officials in the United States, and the first to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation. Rachel became the first openly transgender four-star officer in the nation’s eight uniformed services on October 19, 2021.
Rachel Levine career
From 1988 to 1993, Levine had a fellowship at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where she trained in Pediatrics. She moved from Manhattan to central Pennsylvania in 1993 and joined the staff at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. During her time there, Levine created Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s adolescent medicine division and eating disorder clinic. She was also in charge of the latter when she got nominated for the position of Pennsylvania Physician General in 2015.
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Pennsylvania Department of Health
Levine was nominated by Pennsylvania Governor-elect Tom Wolf to be Pennsylvania’s Physician General in 2015. As Physician General, she signed an order that allowed law enforcement officers to carry the anti-overdose medication naloxone. Levine has credited the drug with saving the lives of almost 1,000 opioid users who had overdosed. She worked in the position until 2017. She was then appointed as Secretary of Health by Governor Wolf in July 2017. and was unanimously confirmed by the Pennsylvania State Senate.
How old is Rachel Levine?
Rachel Leland Levine is aged 64 as of 2021, having been born on October 28, 1957, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, U.S. She shares her birthday with famous people including Bill Gates, Caitlyn Jenner, Julia Roberts, Troian Bellisario, Joaquin Phoenix, Frank Ocean, Annie Potts, Lauren Holly, Jawed Karim, Ben Harper, among others.
Rachel Levine Family
Who are Rachel Levine’s parents?
Rachel Leland Levine was born in Wakefield to Lillian Levine and Melvin Levine. Both of her parents were lawyers, and are Jewish, however, not much information is available in the media about them.
Does Rachel Levine have siblings?
Levine was born to her parents as the second child in a family of two children. She has one older sibling, sister Bonnie Levine, four years older than Rachel.
Rachel Levine Education
Levine attended Belmont High School in Belmont, Massachusetts, where she received a high school diploma. She then attended Harvard College, and after graduating she joined the Tulane University School of Medicine. Rachel then completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in adolescent medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, New York.
Rachel Levine Interests
Levine is transgender and she transitioned in 2011. She has worked as a board member of Equality Pennsylvania, an LGBT rights organization.
Rachel Levine Spouse
Levine is currently divorced and was previously married to Martha Peaslee Levine. The couple married in 1988, during her last year of medical school, and later divorced and separated in 2013.
Rachel Levine Children
Levine and her ex-spouse have two children together. Her children are a daughter, Dayna Levine, and a son David Levine.
Rachel Levine Height
Levine has a stunning, well-built body, with an average height of 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and a moderate weight of 70 kg (154 lbs).
COVID-19 response
From 2020 to January 23, 2021, Levine led the public health response to COVID-19 in Pennsylvania as the state secretary of health. She served closely on a daily basis with the FEMA director and led a daily press briefing. Rachel also came in for criticism over her handling of the pandemic, especially in regard to nursing home patients. She directed nursing homes on March 18, 2020, to admit new patients, such as ”stable patients who have had the COVID-19 virus”. This was despite the warnings of nursing home trade groups that such policies ”could unnecessarily cost more lives.”
Spotlight PA noted that under Levine, Pennsylvania had a ”robust and aggressive” plan to protect nursing home residents but it ”was never fully implemented”. It also repeatedly reported on erroneous reporting of COVID deaths and other data by state officials. After the changes in nursing home admissions policies, WHTM reported on May 12, 2020, that Rachel moved her own mother out of a nursing home. By the summer of 2020, around 70% of COVID deaths in Pennsylvania were in nursing homes.
The issue of her mother and the high COVID death toll in Pennsylvania nursing homes would later be highlighted following President Biden nominating Levine for the post of US Assistant Secretary for Health. A lot of criticism came along from a few Republican leaders and was reported by Newsweek.
Biden Administration
President Joe Biden officially nominated Levine to be assistant secretary for health on February 13, 2021. Her confirmation hearing with the Senate HELP Committee was on February 25. The committee voted 13-9 to advance the nomination to a full Senate vote on March 17. She became the first openly transgender person to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation. This was because earlier transgender federal officials such as Amanda Simpson held offices that did not need Senate confirmation.
Rachel was commissioned to be a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps on October 19, 2021. She became the first openly transgender four-star officer in any of the United States uniformed services. Additionally, she is the first female four-star admiral in the commissioned corps.
Rachel Levine’s Net Worth
American’s 17th Assistant Secretary for Health, Levine was appointed in 2021 and has served in the role to the present. She has served in various offices for the state of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2021. Rachel earns $162,000 per year and has garnered an accumulative net worth of approximately $2 million as of 2022.