The director of Missouri’s largest state agency is leaving in a month. Ronald Levy took over the Department of Social Services at the start of the Nixon adminsitration after a thirty year career with SSM Health Care. He has headed an agency providing public assistance to families, providing health care for low-income families, child protection services, rehabilitation services for troubled young people and other programs.
He says the department has focused on maintaining services to its core clientele. But the biggest acocplishment is establishing the Missouri Health Connection program that eventually will let doctors treating Missourians have access to their patients’ medical records regardless of where the treatment is happening.
Levy, who has commuted from his home in St. Louis to Jefferson City each week, is going home to become an Executive in Residence at St. Louis University’s School of Public Health. He hopes to give students some real-world insights and experiences to the academic lessons students receive.
