HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is losing another member of his cabinet to President Joe Biden’s administration.
The White House announced Friday that Biden has tapped Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittmon as his nominee for Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2014, Delphin-Rittmon completed a two-year appointment under President Barack Obama as senior adviser to the administrator of the federal office she has now been appointed to lead.
Lamont credited Delphin-Rittmon, who appeared with him Friday at a news conference about the Democratic administration’s plans to spend federal coronavirus relief funds, as a “trusted advisor on some of the leading issues of our time” including the opioid crisis and the mental health needs stemming from the pandemic. She has led the state agency since 2015 and previously held other positions within DMHAS.
“That is why it comes as no surprise that President Biden has selected her to bring her expertise to the national level,” Lamont said in a statement, adding how it was “bittersweet” that she is moving on to a new professional opportunity.
Delphin-Rittmon is a resident of Meriden, the same community where U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona grew up and worked as a educator for two decades. Cardona, Lamont’s former state education commissioner, was tapped by Biden in December.
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