Grateful to have served

It was an honor to be chosen as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services by Governor Whitmer. I appreciated her kind words today.

Under her leadership, and alongside thousands of outstanding public employees, we accomplished a lot. DHHS’s carefully crafted November 2020 epidemic order became a national model and prevented thousands of deaths. More lives were saved by our efforts to combat disparities with outreach and testing focused on African-American communities; through first-in-the-nation mandatory testing for agricultural workers; and through the distribution of millions of free masks to underserved populations, ahead of most states. Michigan was the first state to deliver Pandemic EBT benefits to more than 500,000 children; we scaled SNAP during the pandemic more quickly than most states; and our policy changes are increasing benefits renewals, saving residents time, and delivering help faster. With other state partners, we worked against Medicaid work requirements, and we enabled more than 1 million Michiganders to get health insurance. We effectively launched a turnaround of the state’s child welfare system, improving outcomes for thousands of vulnerable youth. We expanded access to medication assisted treatment, including in prisons, and to safe syringe programs for those suffering from substance use disorders. We offered an innovative array of new mental health tools during COVID, and advanced an important public dialogue about improving mental health services over the long term.

I’ve served in government a long time, and I believe that elected chief executives need to make final decisions about policy with confidential advice. They also need to be comfortable with their agency heads. Since the pandemic began, many leadership changes have happened in other states. It’s no surprise they would happen in Michigan.

This has been a grueling time for millions of families, including mine. Late last year, both my parents contracted COVID. My father, Alan Gordon, died on Saturday. He was a public employee who worked on behalf of individuals leaving prison or just finding a home. He taught me that what matters most in life is our service to others. Before COVID struck, nothing made me happier than to visit our field offices, from Detroit to Marquette, to meet with public employees helping those in need. I am grateful to have served.