Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed cupboard would assemble individuals from throughout the ideological spectrum who have already got expertise at prime ranges of presidency and public service.
The Democrat’s division chairs will preside over the day-to-day operations of state applications that have an effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians — from the Division of Human Providers, which administers meals and medical care help applications, to the Division of State, which oversees the commonwealth’s extremely scrutinized elections.
As in previous administrations, most of the new appointees have lengthy histories with Shapiro. And consistent with the brand new governor’s popularity as a reasonable and a pragmatist, his selections generally cross partisan strains, and skew towards individuals who have already got held prime state jobs or labored in public administration, somewhat than outdoors consultants.
All cupboard appointees have to be accredited by the state Senate, which is managed by Republicans.
Shapiro’s nominees for secretary of normal providers and inspector normal haven’t been introduced but. Right here’s a operating record of who we find out about thus far:
Getting old: Jason Kavulich
Kavulich is from Scranton and has spent most of his profession in Lackawanna County — first working as a county caseworker, then rising to director of the Lackawanna County Space Company on Getting old.
In that position, he oversaw the administration of quality-of-life boosters like native meal supply, coordination of caregivers, and applications like grownup day care, in addition to the investigation of abuse allegations and gave entry to authorized providers.
He additionally labored intently with the state Division of Getting old. In December, Kavulich and directors in 4 different counties introduced they might take part within the state’s fledgling Shared Housing and Useful resource Alternate Program, or SHARE. Kavulich mentioned in a press release it will assist cope with “unprecedented challenges in securing inexpensive housing and in-home help for older adults.”
Natalie Kolb
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Commonwealth Media Providers
Agriculture: Russell Redding
Shapiro nominated Redding, the present secretary of agriculture, to return to the place. Redding, who grew up and labored on a dairy farm, has practically a decade of expertise within the position — first for Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell in a two-year stint after which underneath Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf since 2015.
Redding backed the 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Invoice, a $23 million package deal aimed toward bolstering the agriculture trade by offering funding for agricultural disasters and meals security testing amenities. The invoice has been renewed every subsequent yr.
As secretary, Redding can also be chargeable for conservation and sustainability efforts within the agricultural trade.
Redding’s nomination has been lauded by conservation advocacy teams like PennFuture and the Chesapeake Bay Basis.
Banking and Securities: Sarah Hammer
If confirmed, Hammer will be a part of the Shapiro administration through the College of Pennsylvania’s Wharton College, the place she works as managing director of the Stevens Middle for Innovation in Finance.
Earlier than that, she spent a yr working in monetary establishment coverage on the U.S. Treasury, based on her LinkedIn. She additionally served on the board of the nonprofit Securities Investor Safety Company, which helps shield buyers from dropping cash to failed brokerage companies.
Hammer spent the sooner a part of her profession at giant monetary providers firms, together with Vanguard, PIMCO, and JP Morgan Chase.
As banking and securities secretary, Hammer can be tasked with overseeing the regulation of state-chartered banks, credit score unions, and belief firms, of which there are greater than 160.
She mentioned in a press release that she is going to “work to strengthen and improve our client safety efforts whereas making certain the banking and securities trade operates pretty and effectively.”
Group and Financial Improvement: Rick Siger
Siger is at the moment the chief of workers and senior advisor to the president of Carnegie Mellon College and has labored extensively in politics.
Siger served in the administration of former Democratic Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, and he labored underneath former President Barack Obama as chief of workers on the Workplace of Science and Know-how Coverage and deputy chief of workers on the Division of Commerce. Siger was additionally a member of the “innovation coverage committee” of President Joe Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign and volunteered on his presidential transition.
At CMU, Siger advises the president on group engagement and financial growth. He beforehand labored as the pinnacle of college engagement at Piazza Applied sciences, a social studying platform for college kids and school.
The Division of Group and Financial Improvement is charged with rising the enterprise group in Pennsylvania, and has an annual price range of over $300 million. If confirmed, Siger will advise Shapiro on coverage concerning job creation, financial growth, and group engagement.
Conservation and Pure Assets: Cindy Dunn
Dunn already serves as secretary of the Division of Conservation and Pure Assets, and if confirmed, she is going to proceed to be chargeable for the upkeep and preservation of the state’s parks and forests.
She’s been doing that work in a technique or one other for the previous three a long time.
In 2013, she was CEO and president of PennFuture, an environmental group, the place she labored to preserve Pennsylvania’s pure sources and panorama and advocated in opposition to practices equivalent to pure gasoline drilling.
Lots of the environmental conservation organizations that Dunn labored with prior to now now commend Shapiro for his appointment, together with PennFuture and the Chesapeake Bay Basis. David Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition — a corporation that helps pure gasoline manufacturing in Pennsylvania — has additionally supported Dunn’s reappointment.
Below the Wolf administration, Dunn added 4 new state parks and pledged to have the company solely use renewable power by 2030. In 2018, Dunn additionally developed the state’s first local weather change mitigation plan.
Dunn additionally procured an extra $220 million funding towards the Clear Streams Fund, which protects the water high quality of rivers and streams in Pennsylvania. One other $100 million from the American Rescue Plan Act went to state parks.
Corrections: Laurel Harry
Harry has labored for Pennsylvania’s Division of Corrections in varied capacities for twenty-four years, first as a drug and alcohol remedy specialist on the Waynesburg jail. Alongside the way in which, she’s labored in six totally different prisons.
She’s spent the previous decade as superintendent of SCI Camp Hill. Each man who enters the system first passes via that jail for screening earlier than, most often, being moved to a special facility.
As secretary, Harry will oversee a system of 23 prisons (and a boot camp) that in recent times has been working to scale back its inhabitants.
Drug and Alcohol Applications: Latika Davis-Jones
Davis-Jones already has direct expertise with drug and alcohol applications.
After working as a drug counselor in Pittsburgh and instructing on the College of Pittsburgh’s College of Social Work, Davis-Jones took over as administrator of Pittsburgh’s Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Providers in 2011. There, she ran applications for individuals residing with drug and alcohol habit, introduced early intervention applications to locations like faculties, and evangelized using naloxone to stop deadly overdoses.
She appeared earlier than a joint listening to of the state Home and Senate coverage committees in 2016 to share her expertise with the opioid epidemic in Allegheny County. She urged lawmakers to think about habit not as an issue that requires “episodic” care, however to decide to “a persistent care and disease-based strategy.”
Davis-Jones spent greater than 9 years in Allegheny County authorities, then moved into the well being care trade as senior director of behavioral well being at Highmark Wholecare.
Clem Murray
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Schooling: Khalid Mumin
Since 2021, Mumin has been superintendent in Decrease Merion, certainly one of Pennsylvania’s wealthiest public districts, each when it comes to family revenue and per-student spending. However earlier than that, he helmed a really totally different faculty district, Studying Metropolis, which is among the commonwealth’s poorest.
As Studying superintendent, Mumin spoke to The Inquirer about long-standing funding inequities at Pennsylvania faculties, significantly city ones. He mentioned his objective was “to make sure we’re giving our youngsters the identical alternatives the suburban youngsters have.”
Mumin additionally vocally supported placing cash into PlanCon, a state program that reimburses districts for building tasks, telling native information station WFMZ it’s obligatory “particularly for college districts like Studying College District, with previous infrastructure, lovely buildings however want a number of work.” It hasn’t been funded since a 2015 price range battle and is taking no new candidates.
Earlier than his tenure at Studying, Mumin was superintendent in Caroline County, Maryland, and labored for faculties in Bucks, Lancaster, and York Counties.
As training secretary, Mumin might be in command of monitoring faculty operations and making suggestions — earlier secretaries have, for example, pushed for extra constitution faculty oversight. He additionally will decide state training requirements and guarantee faculties meet them, in addition to set up the best way to greatest consider lecturers.
Emergency Administration: Randy Padfield
Padfield has led the Pennsylvania Emergency Administration Company since 2019. He’s chargeable for coordinating the commonwealth’s responses to disasters starting from floods to fires to shootings.
He performed a outstanding position within the commonwealth’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which concerned speaking with the federal authorities to request that army models be deployed to bolster first responders’ presence in locations like nursing houses.
Padfield was the company’s deputy director earlier than his promotion. His different credentials embrace directing a public security coaching heart at Harrisburg Space Group Faculty, working as a vital care flight paramedic, and serving on Pennsylvania’s all-hazards incident administration group.
Environmental Safety: Wealthy Negrin
Negrin, an legal professional of Cuban descent, can be the first Latino secretary of the Division of Environmental Safety. He has labored extensively within the non-public, public, and nonprofit sectors.
DEP’s secretary is in command of implementing environmental legal guidelines, issuing grants for environmentally pleasant tasks, releasing stories, and monitoring potential hazards like deserted wells.
Negrin’s expertise in purely environmental points has thus far been restricted, although reception to his nomination has been constructive amongst environmental teams. Former DEP Secretary David Hess mentioned what the workplace actually wants is somebody who’s “good at managing.”
“You’ve got engineers and biologists and chemists and different workers on the company to fill in particulars and recommend coverage instructions, however it’s nonetheless as much as the secretary to make choices,” Hess mentioned.
Negrin is maybe greatest identified in Pennsylvania for his tenure in Philadelphia politics, when he first labored as govt director of the Board of Revision of Taxes, then served as deputy mayor and metropolis managing director.
He ran unsuccessfully for Philly district legal professional in 2017, successful help from the town’s police union. In line with Philly Magazine, he argued that his formative experiences with violence allowed him to speak to doubtlessly struggling younger individuals “and say, ‘Me too.’” When Negrin was 13, he witnessed his father’s homicide by the hands of an anti-Castro paramilitary group.
Hearth: Thomas Prepare dinner
Prepare dinner, who’s already appearing hearth commissioner, beforehand served as assistant commissioner and was an administrator on the Pennsylvania State Hearth Academy, which oversees the state’s firefighter coaching program.
He was beforehand assistant hearth chief for Pittsburgh, overseeing day by day operations within the metropolis’s 700-member division.
If confirmed, Prepare dinner will proceed working to develop statewide emergency coaching applications and can oversee the commonwealth’s Hearth and Emergency Medical Providers Mortgage Program, which provides low-interest loans to volunteer hearth and emergency providers organizations.
He’ll additionally work intently with Pennsylvania’s greater than 2,000 native hearth departments on points like recruitment and coaching.
Well being: Debra Bogen
Bogen, a pediatrician, rose to prominence in 2020 when she grew to become Allegheny County’s well being division director and led the county’s response to the pandemic. As Pennsylvania’s prime public well being official, she can be chargeable for statewide well being initiatives and rules.
In her Allegheny County position, Bogen tracked knowledge on an infection charges, stored the county knowledgeable on the most recent variants, and advocated for fairness in COVID-19 testing and vaccine entry. She additionally procured a federal grant that allowed elevated opioid surveillance and piloted at-home sexually transmitted illness testing for residents.
Previous to getting into public workplace, Bogen was a professor on the College of Pittsburgh, the place she taught pediatrics and psychiatry. She based the Mid-Atlantic Moms’ Milk Financial institution, a corporation that collects and offers donated human milk to medically weak infants and youngsters.
Tom Gralish
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Human Providers: Val Arkoosh
Arkoosh is an anesthesiologist who has expertise in politics and a protracted relationship with Shapiro.
She served on the Montgomery County well being board throughout Shapiro’s tenure as county commissioner, and when a emptiness opened in 2015, she joined the Board of Commissioners. Shapiro’s affect was instrumental in her appointment.
When Shapiro left county authorities to run for state legal professional normal, Arkoosh took over his position as chair of the board. She was the primary girl to guide the county.
She ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Home in 2014 and U.S. Senate in 2022.
Earlier than her entry into politics, Arkoosh headed the nonprofit Nationwide Physicians Alliance and advocated for the passage of the Reasonably priced Care Act.
If confirmed, Arkoosh will chair an enormous division that administers a lot of Pennsylvania’s greatest entitlement applications. It’s in command of meals help, the state Medicaid program, and licensing a slew of county-level applications coping with providers like psychological well being and baby welfare.
Insurance coverage: Mike Humphreys
The Pennsylvania Insurance coverage Division is tasked with regulating the insurance coverage market within the commonwealth, monitoring firms’ funds, and educating individuals on the generally difficult system.
Wolf named Humphreys, who spent three years working as a chief of workers within the division, the appearing insurance coverage commissioner in early 2022. Earlier than that, Humphreys labored as Tennessee’s assistant commissioner for insurance coverage, and for the Nationwide Convention of Insurance coverage Legislators.
As appearing commissioner, Humphreys inherited the duty of implementing the federal No Surprises Act, which took impact in 2022 and protects sufferers from shock medical payments. As a part of that work, the Insurance coverage Division has a group tasked with investigating payments submitted by sufferers.
Labor and Business: Nancy Walker
The secretary of the Division of Labor and Business oversees the state’s unemployment and staff’ compensation applications, takes labor legislation complaints, and coordinates job coaching alternatives.
In 2017, Shapiro tapped Walker, a longtime labor lawyer, to lead the newly created Truthful Labor Part of the Workplace of Lawyer Common. Certainly one of her major duties was to deliver fits in opposition to employers accused of employee mistreatment, like deliberate underpayment.
Throughout her tenure, she was concerned in a go well with that noticed a big building firm that’s continuously awarded state contracts take a plea deal after being accused of misusing cash supposed for employee advantages. The corporate paid out greater than $20 million to over 1,000 staff.
Walker additionally helped deliver instances on employee misclassification, during which an employer wrongly classifies a employee as, for example, an impartial contractor to keep away from paying advantages. She testified earlier than the state Senate on that work, calling misclassification “probably the most widespread, urgent issues dealing with Pennsylvania’s workforce.”
In a assertion, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO known as Walker “a champion for working individuals and a terrific good friend of the labor motion.”
Navy and Veterans Affairs: Mark Schindler
Schindler has served as adjutant normal since late 2020. In that position, he oversees the Division of Navy and Veterans Affairs, commanding greater than 18,000 members of Pennsylvania’s Army and Air Nationwide Guard, in addition to different commonwealth staff.
The DMVA additionally administers applications for veterans and 6 state-owned houses for veterans.
Schindler has spent a lot of his profession in Pennsylvania Army Nationwide Guard management, and has held roles together with assistant adjutant normal and chief of workers. He deployed to Jordan from 2012 to 2013 as a commander.
Commonwealth Media Providers
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Income: Pat Browne
Browne’s nomination follows two main developments in Shapiro’s picks: selecting individuals with authorities expertise, in addition to protecting the cupboard bipartisan.
For many years, Browne, a Republican, represented the Allentown space within the state legislature. He was elected to the state Home in 1995 and received a state Senate seat in 2005. He grew to become an establishment within the higher chamber, serving as majority chair of the highly effective Appropriations Committee from 2015 till 2022. He misplaced his seat final yr in a particularly shut major election.
The appropriations committee is in command of reviewing any invoice that might have a fiscal impression on the commonwealth and reporting that impression to members. Brown simply utilized his background as an authorized public accountant to the position, gaining a popularity round Harrisburg for advanced explanations of price range math.
Browne was also referred to as a key determine in negotiating these budgets, and for ensuring his district received a slice of the pie. Certainly one of his greatest accomplishments as a senator was writing the legislation that created the neighborhood enchancment zone program, a tax incentive scheme for metropolis growth for which solely Allentown qualifies.
After doling out a flurry of grants and different state funds to Lehigh Valley organizations in his ultimate months in workplace, he advised native public radio station WLVR, “I had the flexibility to supply for our area an quantity that was in all probability extra important than most. I used to be proud to do it.”
If confirmed, Browne will oversee the processing of state tax returns, tax income assortment and distribution, and the operation of the Pennsylvania Lottery.
State: Al Schmidt
Schmidt, a Republican who has for the previous yr helmed the good-government group Committee of Seventy, is greatest identified for his work as a Philadelphia metropolis commissioner.
Schmidt rose to nationwide prominence through the 2020 presidential election, during which gradual vote counting in Pennsylvania — and particularly in Philadelphia — contributed to delayed outcomes and gave rise to a bunch of conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud.
Schmidt was elected to the three-member Philly board of commissioners in 2011 as a reformer, pledging to tackle machine politics and improve transparency.
A few of that work was attention-grabbing, like Schmidt’s 2012 anecdotal report on voting irregularities in Philly, which prompted a political firestorm on the time. Schmidt additionally flagged a voter registration glitch that was main noncitizens to mistakenly get on the rolls.
However Schmidt has additionally tried to carry himself other than politics regardless of his politically charged workplace. Early in his tenure, for example, he averted taking a public place on Pennsylvania’s then-new — and since overturned — voter ID legislation, telling WHYY, “I wasn’t elected into this workplace to have opinions on the legal guidelines.”
He has pledged to run statewide elections in a nonpartisan approach, saying in a press release that he appears ahead to “working with anybody — no matter get together — to make sure [elections] stay free and honest right here in Pennsylvania.”
State Police: Christopher Paris
Paris has been with the Pennsylvania State Police since 1999, working in two extraordinarily totally different troops alongside the way in which: Troop Okay, which covers one of many densest elements of the state in Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties; and Troop R, which incorporates principally rural Lackawanna, Pike, Susquehanna, and Wayne Counties.
He’s additionally served within the company’s Bureau of Coaching and Schooling, the PSP self-discipline workplace, and at division headquarters.
He holds a legislation diploma and is an energetic member of the Pennsylvania Bar.
Pennsylvania State Police patrol roads and have jurisdiction throughout the commonwealth, and in addition present half or full-time police protection in a majority of municipalities — primarily rural ones that both have by no means had their very own police division or have defunded it.
Transportation: Michael Carroll
Caroll spent 16 years within the state Home, serving as Democratic chair of the Transportation Committee for 4 of these years. Throughout his time on the committee, Carroll championed a coverage that elevated the minimal penalty for leaving the scene of a deadly hit-and-run automotive crash from one yr to a few, also referred to as Kevin’s Regulation. The measure handed with bipartisan help.
He has already come out with coverage positions, saying that cash from the state’s Motor License Fund ought to not be diverted from its goal — sustaining roads and bridges — to fund State Police. The difficulty has been a perennial debate subject in Harrisburg.
If confirmed, Carroll’s tasks will embrace overseeing the development and upkeep of roads, supervising mass transit, and licensing motor autos.
Highlight PA’s Stephen Caruso contributed reporting.
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