In The Loop – December 9, 2022

Governor Lamont Announces Plans To Appoint Andrea Barton Reeves as Commissioner of the Department of Social Services, Dr. Deidre Gifford as Executive Director of the Office of Health Strategy at Start of Second Term

Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he is planning to appoint Andrea Barton Reeves as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) and Dr. Deidre Gifford as executive director of the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) when he begins his second term in office early next year.

Gifford is currently the commissioner of DSS and Barton Reeves is CEO of the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. Gifford will fill the role of OHS executive director that was most recently held by Victoria Veltri, who stepped down from state service in June. Barton Reeves will fill the position at DSS that is being vacated by Gifford in her transition to OHS.

In addition to serving as OHS executive director, Governor Lamont will continue to task Gifford with the added role of serving as senior advisor to the governor for health and human services. In this position – which she first agreed to take on in July 2021 – she is responsible for organizing a multi-agency approach among the state’s nine health and human services agencies in a way that best improves health and healthcare outcomes for the state’s residents, and specifically works to ensure that any areas in which these agencies have overlapping responsibilities are optimally coordinated. She is also responsible for working closely with the Office of Policy and Management on these issues and providing the governor with policy recommendations that address health and healthcare costs, quality, and disparities……. KEEP READING.