Former Pa. health secretary, now a top U.S. health official, to be honored as transgender pioneer [Video]

Rutgers University is awarding an honorary degree to the nation’s first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Admiral Rachel L. Levine has led the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps since 2021 and is the assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Levine will receive an honorary doctor of science degree Sunday during the Rutgers-New Brunswick and Rutgers Health commencement at SHI Stadium, the university said Monday.

Levine served as Pennsylvania’s physician general and as state Secretary of the Department of Health, before being nominated by President Biden to her current role.

Rutgers previously announced that three others would receive honorary degrees at the university’s 258th commencement, which will start at 10 a.m.

The commencement speaker, Freeman A. Hrabowski III, is a longtime civil rights advocate and former president of the University of Maryland in Baltimore County. Hrabowski III will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters …