Rachel Levin

  Rachel Leland Levine (born October 28, 1957) is an American pediatrician and a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has served as the United States assistant secretary for health since March 26, 2021.She is a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, and previously served as the Pennsylvania physician general from 2015 to 2017 and as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health from 2017 to 2021. Levine is one of only a few openly transgender government officials in the United States, and is the first to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation.On October 19, 2021, Levine became the first openly transgender four-star officer in the nation's eight uniformed services. Born on October 28, 1957, Levine is originally from Wakefield, Massachusetts. Her parents, Melvin and Lillian Levine, were both lawyers. She has a sister, Bonnie Levine, who is four years older. Levine is Jewish and grew up attending Hebrew school. Levine earned a high school diploma from Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Massachusetts.Levine graduated from Harvard College and the Tulane University School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics and a postdoctoral fellowship in adolescent medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, New York.