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Secretary of Public Welfare Gary D. Alexander oversees a department that provides services and supports to more than 2.1 million low-income, elderly and disabled Pennsylvanians. He is widely recognized as a health care and program innovator, welfare reformer and management specialist.

Prior to being confirmed as DPW secretary, Alexander served as the Rhode Island Secretary of Health and Human Services. In that role, he transformed health and human services into a value-oriented and performance-driven system focused on the needs of the consumer. He is the architect of the landmark Rhode Island Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver. The Rhode Island waiver redesigned the entire system of healthcare to focus on quality, choice and independence for consumers, while saving millions of dollars for the taxpayers.

He also reformed the state’s cash assistance program to focus on “work first” and engage clients in employment. These efforts resulted in a 30 percent reduction in Rhode Island’s welfare population over the past two years.

Other positions he has held include serving as policy director for Rhode Island’s lieutenant governor and as a healthcare budget analyst for the Massachusetts Senate Committee on Ways and Means.

A Boston native, Alexander received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern University and his J.D. from Suffolk University School of Law, both in Boston. He is an ordained deacon in the Armenian Orthodox Church.

Alexander and his wife have two children.