Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday named a new acting director for the state’s largest department, after announcing Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel would be moving to a “new chapter in her career.”
The governor named Amy Epkey, the senior deputy director for the department’s financial operations administration, as acting director for the department starting July 1.
Epkey, according to Whitmer’s statement, has been responsible for overseeing the department’s roughly $40 bill budget.
“Amy Epkey brings decades of experience in state government and a proven record of leadership, and I am confident she will continue the important work of the Department of Health and Human Services,” Whitmer said in a statement.
The Democratic governor, who has about six months remaining in office, thanked Hertel for her service to the state, crediting her with helping to expand health care access and improve behavioral health services in Michigan.
“I am grateful for her partnership and wish her continued success in her next chapter,” Whitmer said.
It was not immediately clear what Hertel’s plans are for the future. In a statement Monday, the department said Hertel will “take the summer off to spend more time with family before embarking on the next step in her career.”
Michigan’s health and human services agency noted that under Hertel’s leadership, the state has designed two new psychiatric hospitals, expanded the behavioral health continuum of care, and revamped the delivery of children’s services.
But state Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, said Hertel’s departure is “more than welcome” in a statement Monday, arguing Hertel ignored “serious crises within youth rehabilitation programs.” Those failures undermined public trust and “allowed systemic problems to fester unchecked,” Roth said.
“I’d say she’d be missed, but I can’t miss a person who never answered my calls or showed up to my committee hearings,” said Roth, who serves as chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Services.
Hertel, who is married to Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel Jr., has led the department since 2021.
She replaced former DHHS Director Robert Gordon, who served during the coronavirus pandemic and departed his position with a $155,506 separation agreement that required confidentiality.
Hertel is not the first Whitmer appointee to depart her post during the last year of Whitmer’s time in office.
Michelle Lange, the director of the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, departed her position for a lobbying post with the Dykema Gossett law firm in February.
Patricia Readington, director of Michigan’s federal relations office since 2019, announced over the weekend on LinkedIn that she was leaving her post.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Elizabeth Hertel to depart Michigan DHHS, Whitmer names acting director
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
