Summary:
Admiral Rachel Levine is sworn into office.
A Message from the Assistant Secretary for Health & Head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
I am Admiral Rachel Levine, I use she/her pronouns, and I am proud to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. I am honored to serve as the first transgender Senate-confirmed appointee to federal office. My appointment paves the way to national leadership that is more reflective of the people we serve.
Throughout my career, I have focused on inclusion in the field of medicine and instilling the values of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA). This includes my work at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s Division of Adolescent Medicine caring for complex teens with medical and psychological indications. I started the Penn State Hershey Eating Disorders Program, which offers multidisciplinary treatment for children, adolescents, and adults with eating disorders. At the time, Penn State Hershey Medical Center had a non-discrimination policy that included sexual orientation, but not gender identity and expression. I was able to work with the administration to establish an updated policy that included gender identity and expression as protected categories.
I also served previously as the faculty advisor for the LGBTQI+ student group, became the diversity office’s liaison for LGBTQI+ affairs and helped the medical center establish itself as a more welcoming environment for members of the LGBTQI+ community. DEIA is of the utmost importance to me. I believe that diversity is more than tolerance. It is more than acceptance. It is the celebration of different backgrounds and experiences that strengthen our work. HHS is a champion for DEIA. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) is committed to health equity in our everyday work and lives, and I am proud to work here.
In my role as Assistant Secretary for Health, I have had the opportunity to meet many people during my travels throughout the nation. The people I meet want to thrive in their communities. They want their families and neighbors to thrive. They want to live well and be recognized and respected. This is why we are working to promote more inclusive data collection, including data inclusive of LGBTQI+ people.
Not all state and federal data instruments include demographic questions on sexual orientation and gender identity. This can lead to underrepresentation, incomplete pictures of communities, and ultimately inadequate medical care. Collecting population-level sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, data is key to meeting the needs of LGBTQI+ people. Today, it is a best practice in data science to incorporate SOGI data into data collection instruments. This leads us to apply resources where they are needed most. We need to understand health disparities to do that, and we need data to identify disparities.
HHS is leading efforts to address this through our SOGI Data Action Plan, which seeks to make SOGI data the norm in public health and human services. We are already seeing incredible impacts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added SOGI measures to HIV, STI, and MPOX case reports. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services added SOGI measures to the healthcare.gov enrollment application and the Medicare Parts C and D enrollment applications. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) added gender identity questions to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. We continue to advance data equity every day.
Increasing our knowledge of LGBTQI+ health disparities allows us to focus our work on those most at risk. Thanks to better data collection, we know the outsized health disparities faced by LGBTQI+ Americans of color, particularly transgender women of color. We also better understand the needs of LGBTQI+ people with disabilities and LGBTQI+ people who live in rural areas.
To respond to these health needs, HHS recently released the LGBTQI+ Community and Disaster Preparedness and Response toolkit. You can find the toolkit online through the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
SAMHSA recently released a groundbreaking report called ‘Moving Beyond Change Efforts’ that compiles all the evidence regarding the harms of conversion therapy. HHS has signed an interagency action plan to address conversion therapy around the world. We are working with the departments of State and Treasury and the U.S. Agency for International Development to safeguard youth everywhere from the harms of this damaging, unscientific practice.
“Our family, friends, neighbors, patients, students, and coworkers deserve equitable care. That spirit of community and DEIA inclusion is what makes our country great, and it is what we need now more than ever.”
In keeping with our multi-disciplinary approach to public health, HHS has been part of an interagency team, alongside the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, to ensure safety for LGBTQI+ communities in light of increased violence and threats.
We must close disparities in access and outcomes, eliminate bias and discrimination, and address the systemic barriers that have contributed to historic inequities.
Those in America deserve care and services that are timely, affordable, accessible, equitable, and high-quality. Our family, friends, neighbors, patients, students, and coworkers deserve equitable care. That spirit of community and DEIA inclusion is what makes our country great, and it is what we need now more than ever.
Admiral Rachel Levine
Assistant Secretary for Health & Head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Department of Health and Human Services
Continuing our DEIA journey
The DEIA journey is a continuous process of learning and improvement. Committing to DEIA is not just the right thing to do—it is the smart thing to do. It makes HHS a stronger federal agency, a more effective leader and partner in advancing the health of the nation, and an attractive home for the nation’s best and brightest talent.
Leadership change stories will evolve as we collaborate across HHS and make shared progress. We will move forward with a focus on continuous improvement and addressing existing and emerging leadership needs.
For questions, resources, or additional information, please email DEIAStrategicPlan@hhs.gov.
