Health Commissioner Mark Levine announced his retirement Friday after eight years serving as the head of the Vermont Department of Health.
Levine, a medical doctor, led the department through several crises, including the state’s most significant health challenge in decades: the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Dr. Levine was a steady, reassuring voice through the pandemic, and in the months of recovery that followed,” Secretary of Human Services Jenney Samuelson said in a statement. “Each week, during marathon press conferences, he calmly tackled complex topics in epidemiology and public health.’
The Department of Health tracked Covid-19 data, provided Covid guidance to Vermonters and organized mass vaccination campaigns, among other measures. Levine also served as an adviser to Gov. Phil Scott on health matters.
“I will be forever grateful for his advice and counsel over the years, but especially during the pandemic, as he appeared with me daily at press conferences during those difficult days, giving much comfort to Vermonters as our very own ‘Country Doc,’” Scott said in a statement.
Along with Covid-19, Levine led the Department through some of the worst years of the opioid epidemic, which hit a new peak during the Covid pandemic but began dropping in 2023.
The press release announcing his retirement cited other accomplishments during his tenure, including creating a nurse home visiting program for newborns.
Levine, a 71-year-old resident of Shelburne, had an internal medical practice and served as associate dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine before joining the health department. He plans to officially retire at the end of March.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine announces his retirement .