Coleman-Mitchell returns to DPH as commissioner

Photo | LinkedIN via Renée D. Coleman-Mitchell Renée D. Coleman-Mitchell.

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By Joe Cooper

A former Connecticut Department of Health (DPH) staffer is returning to the agency as commissioner, according to the governor.

Gov. Ned Lamont late Friday named Renée D. Coleman-Mitchell, currently the executive director for Cougar Health Services at Washington State University, to lead the state’s public health office.

Lamont, who is traveling to Washington D.C. this weekend for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, was busy on Friday, also announcing the selections of Seila Mosquera and Andrew N. Mais as commissioners of the state departments of housing and insurance, respectively.

Coleman-Mitchell’s nomination will need approval from the General Assembly before she takes office on April 1. She will succeed former DPH Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino.

During her tenure at Washington State, Coleman-Mitchell led the school’s health services unit through a rebranding and implemented an integrated delivery model for health and wellness services at the university, Lamont's office said.

She previously spent several years at DPH in a variety of roles beginning in 1986, starting in the agency HIV/AIDs division. In 1994, Coleman-Mitchell left DPH and briefly served a stint as director of Community Health Center Inc. in Meriden. She then became deputy director of health for the city of Hartford a year later, and returned to DPH in 2002 to work as section chief of the agency’s Community, Family, and Health Equity Section until 2016.

Coleman-Mitchell earned a bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College and a master’s degree in public health from the Yale University School of Medicine.

“Renée knows Connecticut’s public health community well and has the right experience and leadership skills to help achieve our goal of making our state even healthier,” Gov. Lamont said in a statement.