AUGUSTA, Maine — Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew will step down May 31 to take a national health policy position at a Washington-based think tank and to teach at Harvard University, Gov. Janet Mills announced Tuesday.
Lambrew has led the Department of Health and Human Services since Mills, a Democrat, announced her as her first Cabinet member after winning the 2018 election. Lambrew’s tenure has been marked by expanding Medicaid to more than 100,000 Mainers and helping manage the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response but also grappling with Maine’s troubled child welfare system that saw a record numbers of kids die in recent years.
The announcement is the latest change for the largest department in Maine’s state government that has faced pressure from lawmakers largely tied to child welfare, with stalled efforts to reform or separate DHHS and the Office of Child and Family Services amid persistent complaints from caseworkers who have reported a lack of support and burnout.
Lambrew will become director of health care reform at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, starting June 10, according to Mills. Lambrew will also serve as an adjunct health policy professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Mills said she will name an acting commissioner before Lambrew departs, if a permanent commissioner is not nominated sooner. Any commissioner candidate must go before the Legislature’s health committee for a hearing before receiving Senate confirmation.
Lambrew, who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, served as former President Barack Obama’s deputy assistant for health policy, guiding the implementation of the landmark Affordable Care Act. She also served in health care, economic and budget roles in former President Bill Clinton’s administration. Lambrew has previously taught at the University of Texas and George Washington University, along with serving as a health policy fellow at the Center for American Progress.
“The last five and a half years have been extraordinarily challenging and rewarding, with the department staff, cabinet, partners, and people of Maine responding to a global pandemic, catastrophic storms, and human tragedies with skill, compassion, and results,” Lambrew said. “More work remains to be done, but the department is well-positioned to continue its vital work.”