Governor-Elect Moore to have the most diverse cabinet in the history of Maryland
BALTIMORE (Jan. 12, 2023) — Today, Governor-Elect Wes Moore announced the appointment of Dr. Laura Herrera Scott as the Secretary of Health, Portia Wu as the Secretary of Labor, Rafael López as the Secretary of Human Services, Atif Chaudhry as the Secretary of General Services, Anthony Woods as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Vincent Schiraldi as the Secretary of Juvenile Services—setting the stage for the Moore Administration to have the most diverse cabinet in the history of Maryland.
“I promised in my campaign we would create an Administration that looks like the State of Maryland, and today I’m proud to announce that with the addition of these public servants we are on our way to creating the most diverse cabinet in the history of Maryland,” said Governor-Elect Wes Moore. “We’re going to move fast and these leaders are going to help pave the way to creating a Maryland where no one is left behind.”
Dr. Laura Herrera Scott, Secretary of Health
Dr. Laura Herrera Scott is a healthcare leader with expertise across decades in integrating value-based care philosophy with clinical and population health strategies. She is a visionary leader in the health space, spearheading the creation of progressive programs that optimize patient outcomes, improve the quality of care, and advance health equity. Most recently, Dr. Scott served as Executive Vice President of Population Health at Summit Health, and as Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Product at Anthem. She also brings MDH experience, she last served in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2011-2015 as Deputy Secretary of Public Health Services. Dr. Scott is a Veteran of the United States Army Reserves, serving from 1998-2008 as a Major in the Medical Corps. She received a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a Doctor of Medicine from SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn, New York. She currently lives in Towson, Maryland with her husband and two children.
Portia Wu, Secretary of Labor
Portia Wu joins the Moore-Miller administration from her most recent position as Managing Director of U.S. Public Policy at Microsoft, where she has worked since 2017. Wu is an experienced leader who has spent her career developing and implementing policies that benefit America’s workers. Before joining Microsoft, Wu served as Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the United States Department of Labor. In that role, she oversaw federal programs that provided employment services and job training to more than 15 million individuals each year. She also led the agency’s implementation of the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2015, which reformed federal workforce programs and instituted new accountability and reporting measures. From 2011 to 2014, Ms. Wu served at the White House Domestic Policy Council as Special Assistant and Senior Policy Advisor to President Barack Obama for Labor and Workforce. Wu also served as Labor Policy Director for the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. She received a Master’s Degree in comparative literature from Cornell University and her Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School. She and her family live in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Rafael López, Secretary of Human Services
Rafael López is a national leader in human services and leading complex organizations in the public, non-profit, and private sectors to improve the lives of children, families, and communities. He will be joining the administration as Maryland’s Secretary of Human Services, coming from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where he most recently served as Senior Advisor to the Administration for Children and Families. In the Biden-Harris Administration, López helped reunite more than 170,000 unaccompanied children with their family members or other vetted sponsors at the height of the largest surge of unaccompanied children in U.S. history. López previously served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families for the Obama-Biden Administration. Prior to his appointment, López served as Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President and with the Domestic Policy Council. Before serving in the White House, López served as Associate Director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, a national organization dedicated to developing a brighter future for children and young people with respect to their educational, economic, social, and health outcomes. He has also served as the President & CEO at the Family League of Baltimore City, as Executive Director of the Commission for Children, Youth, and their Families for the City of Los Angeles, and as Deputy Director for the same Department in the City and County of San Francisco. López is an alumnus of Vassar College and a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz, and the Harvard University Kennedy School, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. López and his wife, Rosa, are the proud parents of two teenage children, Adán and Mateo.
Atif Chaudhry, Secretary of General Services
Atif Chaudhry was previously appointed the Maryland Department of Health Deputy Secretary of Operations in January of 2021. In this role, Mr. Chaudhry oversaw the MDH Healthcare System, the Office of Facilities Management and Development, the Office of Preparedness and Response, the Office of Safety and Secured Transport, and the Office of Contract Management and Procurement.Chaudhry previously served as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Operations for the Maryland Department of Health since August 2020 and the administration’s Director of the Office of Facilities Management and Development since 2017.Chaudhry has worked in the State government, specifically for MDH, since 2004. Chaudhry, a resident of Ellicott City, holds two degrees from the University of Baltimore, a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration and a Master’s of Business Administration. He also holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Maryland School of Law, and is an active member of the Maryland Bar.
Anthony Woods, Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Tony Woods joins the Moore-Miller administration from his current role as the Executive Director of the Quad Fellowship — a first-of-its-kind fellowship program designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists. The program sponsors 100 exceptional American, Japanese, Australian, and Indian master’s and doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to study at American universities. Before founding the Quad Fellowship at Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Tony had a successful private sector career at Cisco Systems, The Boston Consulting Group, and Capital One. At Schmidt Futures, Tony was the Director and Head of Talent, leading people operations including recruiting, hiring, talent development, and culture. Tony’s military career began when he attended West Point and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served two tours of duty in Iraq where he earned a Bronze Star for his service. Tony was discharged from the U.S. Army in 2008 under the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, which barred members of the LGBTQ community from serving openly in the military. After his discharge, Tony ran for Congress and collaborated with advocates working to repeal the law. After the law’s repeal, Tony resumed his service in the U.S. Army Reserve and currently holds the rank of Major and serves as an intelligence analyst assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. In the public sector, Tony served as a Program Director at ServiceNation — a campaign of Be The Change, Inc. dedicated to increasing national and volunteer service. There, he created the “Service as a Strategy” initiative to equip a network of over 100 mayors with volunteer-driven solutions to city-wide challenges. Tony continued his public service as a White House Fellow in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under President Barack H. Obama. Tony graduated from the U.S. Military Academy West Point with a B.S. in Economics and Political Science. He earned a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an Executive MBA from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Tony and his husband Zack live in Bowie, where they are restoring a historic home built in 1798 and raising two dogs, Juno and Java.
Vincent Schiraldi, Secretary of Juvenile Services
Vincent Schiraldi is a national leader in criminal/juvenile justice and mass incarceration reform, a field he has worked in for more than four decades. He is joining the Moore-Miller administration from Columbia University, where he served as Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia School of Social Work and co-Director of the Columbia Justice Lab, working to reduce the footprint and negative impact of community corrections, eliminate youth prisons, and create a developmentally appropriate response to offending by young adults. Mr. Schiraldi went to Columbia from the Harvard Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice where he was a Senior Researcher. Mr. Schiraldi also has extensive government experience in criminal and juvenile justice. As Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Correction, he attempted to close Riker’s Island and end the practice of solitary confinement. Mr. Schiraldi also served as director of juvenile corrections in Washington DC, as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation, and as Senior Policy Adviser to the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. He also pioneered efforts at community-based alternatives to incarceration in NYC and Washington DC as founder and executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and Justice Policy Institute, respectively. Schiraldi has lectured at the Columbia University School of Social Work, Harvard Law School, NYU School of Social Work, San Francisco University, and the Georgetown University Center for Juvenile Justice Reform. Schiraldi received a Master’s in Social Work from New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Binghamton University.
