Gov. Wolf nominates deputy chief of staff Alison Beam as new state Health Secretary

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday he will nominate two administration staff members to replace positions held by outgoing secretary of the Department of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine.

His Secretary of Health nominee Alison Beam is an attorney and health policy administrator who has served most recently as his deputy chief of staff. She assumes the role as acting health secretary on Monday.

In her role in the Wolf administration, Beam has coordinated initiatives and resources across Pennsylvania’s departments of Health, Human Services, Drug & Alcohol Programs, Aging and Insurance, as well as the Office of Advocacy and Reform, according to a press release.

She has also helped coordinate the administration of the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response, the rollout of the new health insurance marketplace, Pennie, and the administration’s health care reform plan.

Previously Beam served as chief of staff to the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner. 

“Alison knows that a strong, widely available, and successful vaccination strategy is the path out of the pains of this pandemic,” Wolf said. 

Beam’s immediate focus in her new role will be strategic distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, ensuring the state receives as many doses as possible from the federal government, and coordinating with government, pharmacy and health care entities to make the vaccine as widely available as possible, Wolf said. 

"We have worked alongside Acting Secretary Beam in her role as deputy chief of staff to put the voices of nurses and front-line caregivers in the forefront to navigate the COVID crisis, inform the state’s recovery, get PPE to essential workers, and give home care workers the voice and protections they need," Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing that important work with Alison Beam in her new role." 

Beam previously served as director of public policy and associate counsel for Independence Health Group in Philadelphia.

She replaces outgoing Secretary of Health Levine, who has been nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of Health in the federal Department of Health and Human Services. 

In response to the nomination, the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association called on Beam to prioritize the COVID vaccination of corrections officers in state prisons over smokers.

At the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Wolf administration recently moved smokers to 1A, their top priority category for vaccination. 

Corrections officers remain at 1B.

In a press release, PSCOA Western Region Vice President John Eckenrode said the CDC recommendation doesn’t prevent the Wolf administration from making corrections officers a higher priority for the vaccine.

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“Our state prison system has been overcome by COVID, but for some reason the Wolf administration has decided to ignore its own corrections officers, who are risking their lives every day in some of the worst conditions of this pandemic,” Eckenrode said. 

The governor also named Dr. Wendy Braund as interim acting physician general, replacing Levine who also served in that role. 

Braund currently serves as the COVID-19 response director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. 

Previously, she was the director of the Center for Public Health Practice, Associate Dean for Practice, and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. 

Previously she served as the Wyoming State Health Officer and Public Health Division Administrator for the Wyoming Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.