Moore nominates five department heads – WTOP News

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Maryland Gov.-elect Wes Moore (D) named 5 extra division heads to his cupboard Thursday, with a watch towards making it probably the most numerous assortment of high state officers ever.

Moore, who’s scheduled to be sworn into workplace Wednesday, introduced the appointments of the secretaries of well being, labor, human companies, basic companies and juvenile companies, with 4 out of the 5 being individuals of shade and one among them an brazenly homosexual man. The entire appointees have some form of authorities work expertise.

“I promised in my marketing campaign we’d create an administration that appears just like the state of Maryland, and at present I’m proud to announce that with the addition of those public servants we’re on our technique to creating probably the most numerous cupboard within the historical past of Maryland,” Moore mentioned in a press assertion. “We’re going to maneuver quick and these leaders are going to assist pave the best way to making a Maryland the place nobody is left behind.”

Moore named Dr. Laura Herrera Scott, a former state public well being deputy secretary, to move the Division of Well being; Portia Wu, managing director of U.S. Public Coverage for Microsoft Corp., to steer the Labor Division; Rafael J. López, senior advisor to the federal Administration for Youngsters and Households, to move the Human Companies Division; Atif T. Chaudhry, deputy secretary for operations on the state Well being Division, to move the Division of Common Companies; Anthony C. “Tony” Woods, a West Level graduate who did two excursions of responsibility in Iraq, the place he was awarded the bronze star, to steer the Veterans Affairs Division; and Vincent N. Schiraldi, a nationally acknowledged prison justice and jail reformer, to move the Juvenile Companies Division.

Scott, who resides in Towson, has been government vice chairman of inhabitants well being at Summit Well being since final March. For 5 months earlier than that, she was vice chairman of scientific technique and product at Anthem Inc., and for 4 years earlier than that, she was vice chairman of Medicaid scientific operations for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Defend. In the course of the earlier yr, she labored as medical director for inhabitants and group well being at Johns Hopkins HealthCare.

In the course of the administration of Gov. Martin O’Malley, Herrera Scott served because the state deputy well being secretary for public well being companies, from 2011-2015.

Scott is also a serious within the U.S. Military Reserve’s Medical Corps.

“We’re thrilled that Dr. Laura Herrera Scott is Governor-elect Wes Moore’s alternative for Well being secretary,” mentioned Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Well being Care For All coalition. “In her time on the Baltimore Metropolis and Maryland state well being departments, Dr. Herrera Scott has proven herself a powerful public well being advocate and terrific chief. We sit up for working along with her to attain our frequent objective of high quality, inexpensive well being look after all Marylanders.”

Moore’s Labor Division appointee, Wu, who resides in Chevy Chase, has labored at Microsoft since 2017, however earlier than that, was assistant secretary for employment and coaching on the U.S. Division of Labor within the administration of President Barack Obama. From 2011 to 2014, Wu served on the White Home Home Coverage Council as particular assistant and senior coverage advisor to Obama for labor and workforce. She additionally had been labor coverage director for the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat.

“Congratulations to future Labor Secretary Portia Wu! We sit up for working with you to enhance the lives of Maryland’s employees,” was the message on the Fb web page of the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO.

Donna S. Edwards, president of the labor group, mentioned Wu known as her Thursday morning to introduce herself, earlier than Moore made his announcement publicly.

“Portia has an incredible labor background,” Edwards mentioned. “She comes with nice expertise from either side – a labor standpoint and a enterprise standpoint.”

Requested about Wu’s employment at Microsoft, Edwards mentioned the corporate had a “labor neutrality settlement” with the Communications Employees of America, AFL-CIO, CLC, since final June, leading to “labor peace.”

Lopez, the appointee to steer the Division of Human Companies, now works on the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies Administration for Youngsters and Households. Earlier than that, he was HHS’s Commissioner of the Administration on Youngsters, Youth, and Households within the Obama administration. Previous to that, he was senior coverage adviser to the White Home Workplace of Science and Expertise Coverage and the Home Coverage Council.

Earlier he labored in Baltimore, first as president and CEO of the Household League of Baltimore Metropolis after which as affiliate director of the Annie E. Casey Basis.

Chaudhry, the nominee for the Division of Common Companies, began state service in 2004 on the Maryland Well being Division. In 2017, he grew to become director of the Workplace of Amenities Administration and Improvement, a place he held till August 2020, when he was named appearing deputy secretary of operations. He was made the everlasting deputy secretary in January 2021.

In that place, he oversees the company’s Healthcare System, the Workplace of Amenities Administration and Improvement, the Workplace of Preparedness and Response, the Workplace of Security and Secured Transport, and the Workplace of Contract Administration and Procurement. He resides in Ellicott Metropolis.

Veterans Affairs appointee Tony Woods, who resides in Bowie, at the moment is government director of the Quad Fellowship, a program he based for 100 American, Japanese, Australian, and Indian college students pursuing superior levels in science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic to review at American universities. The fellowship operates on the philanthropic Schmidt Futures, the place he was director and head of expertise.

Earlier than that, Woods labored at Cisco Programs, The Boston Consulting Group and Capital One.

Woods’s army profession started as a U.S. Military lieutenant, after graduating from West Level and serving in Iraq. He was discharged in 2008 underneath the army’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Inform” coverage, which barred members of the LGBTQ group from serving brazenly within the army.

The next yr, Woods got down to be the primary brazenly homosexual African-American elected to Congress, working in a particular election for an open congressional seat in California’s tenth District, east of the San Francisco Bay space. He misplaced, receiving solely 9% of the vote.

Woods resumed his army service within the U.S. Military Reserve and now could be a serious, serving as an intelligence analyst on the Pentagon.

Woods has served as a program director at Service Nation, a marketing campaign of Be The Change, Inc. devoted to growing nationwide and volunteer service – an concept typically championed by Gov.-elect Moore. He additionally was a fellow within the U.S. Workplace of Personnel Administration within the Obama White Home.

Moore’s nominee for juvenile companies, Vincent Schiraldi, most not too long ago has been a senior analysis scientist on the Columbia College Faculty of Social Work and co-director of the Columbia Justice Lab in New York.

Earlier than that, Schiraldi was commissioner of New York Metropolis’s Division of Correction, which oversees the long-troubled Rikers Island, a place to which former Mayor Invoice de Blasio appointed him in Could 2021. He tried to shut the New York jail and remove the observe of solitary confinement, in addition to managing to anger the unions representing jail staff, earlier than the brand new mayor, Eric Adams, fired him after he took workplace in late 2021.

He had beforehand labored within the de Blasio administration from 2014 to 2015, when he was a senior adviser to the director of the Mayor’s Workplace of Legal Justice. For 4 years earlier than that he was a commissioner of the New York Metropolis Division of Probation. Earlier, in 2005, he was director of the Division of Youth Rehabilitation Companies in Washington, D.C.