Delaware Public Health Association
 

Rita M. Landgraf

Vice President
Co-Chair, DPHA Advisory Council

Rita Landgraf joined the University of Delaware’s College of Health Sciences in early 2017 as professor of practice and distinguished health and social services administrator in residence. She also serves as director of the UD Partnership for Healthy Communities (PHC), a cross-college, cross-state initiative, and the Chair of ChristianaCare’s Home Health and Community Services Program.

Professor Landgraf served as Cabinet Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services from 2009 to 2017, under Governor Jack Markell’s administration. As Secretary, she led the principal agency charged with keeping Delawareans healthy, ensuring they get the health care they need, and providing children, families, individuals with disabilities, and seniors with the essential services they depend on. She led the State of Delaware’s successful efforts to meet the requirements of the Settlement Agreement entered into with the U.S. Department of Justice to promote recovery and community integration of individuals with Serious and Persistent Mental Illness. The USDOJ recognized Delaware for being the first state to achieve this level of transformation within the stated five-year time frame. She was also responsible for the state’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Professor Landgraf currently serves as a member of the Democrat Governor’s Association Healthcare Advisory Council. She is on the Board of the Delaware Center for Health Innovation, the Executive Advisory Boards of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Delaware, and atTAcK addiction. She serves as the First Lady of Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland, and was honored as the 2015 Girl Scouts’ Woman of Distinction.