Governor Donald L. Carcieri today announced his intention to nominate Gary D. Alexander as Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). Alexander has served as the Director of the Department of Human Services since December 2006, first as acting director and later confirmed by the Senate in June 2007. Previously, Alexander served eight years as the Assistant to the Director of DHS. The nomination is subject to the advice and consent of the state Senate.

As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alexander will subsume his current position and maintain his statutory responsibilities as DHS Director, as well as oversee, direct and coordinate the Departments of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, Elderly Affairs and Children, Youth and Families.

“With the establishment of the Rhode Island Global Consumer Choice Waiver Compact, Gary Alexander has distinguished himself as both an architect of and proponent for lasting reforms that make government more responsive, accountable and cost-effective,” said Governor Carcieri. “The Global Waiver is unique in the nation and widely viewed as model for state Medicaid programs in the future. “I am confident Gary will continue to work across EOHHS departments to implement the waiver, and all social service programs, to better serve our most vulnerable populations.”

The landmark Rhode Island Global Compact Waiver establishes a State-federal compact that provides the State with greater flexibility while assuring federal funding certainty. Rhode Island will use the additional flexibility afforded by the waiver to redesign the State's Medicaid program to provide cost-effective services that better meet the changing needs of the individuals it serves. Under the waiver, the state would receive an aggregate allotment of $12.1 billion in federal funds over the five-year demonstration period.

“I am honored to have been given this important responsibility of being the Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services,” said Gary Alexander. “I am deeply grateful for Governor Carcieri's confidence in me to accomplish this significant mission, and I look forward to working with my fellow directors to bring greater coordination among the different departments to serve the public more effectively.”

In addition to crafting the Global Waiver and reforming Medicaid, Alexander also was the chief architect of reforming and re-engineering the State’s cash assistance program, now known as RI Works.

The Rhode Island Department of Human Services changed its welfare program in June 2008 in a number of very dramatic ways. As one of the Governor’s two most significant reform initiatives of 2008, the new Rhode Island Works Program provides the State with a “work first” model of temporary benefits for needy families combined with appropriate work supports which are designed to offer these families help in entering or re-entering the job market. By nature of the fact that DHS has all of the legal and programmatic underpinnings such as Medicaid, Economic Support Services, financial and legal to support all of the populations, it is a chance to further consolidate and share more functions across departments. This will result in greater coordination of services and efficiencies.

In previous public service, Alexander has served as Policy Director for Lt. Governor Jackvony and a Healthcare Budget Analyst for the Massachusetts Senate Committee on Ways and Means.

Alexander earned his Juris Doctor at Suffolk University Law School in 2002. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northeastern University in Boston with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

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