Senate Overwhelmingly Confirms Governor Shapiro’s Nominees to Lead the Departments of Education and Insurance, Office of the State Fire Commissioner
June 26, 2023
Harrisburg, PA – Today, the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed three of Governor Josh Shapiro’s cabinet nominations: Department of Education Secretary Khalid Mumin, Insurance Department Commissioner Michael Humphreys, and Fire Commissioner Thomas Cook. Read more about the cabinet members below.
Secretary Mumin joins the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) with over 25 years of experience in education – previously serving as a teacher, dean of students, principal, and central administrator. He most recently served as the Superintendent of Schools at Lower Merion School District. He also served as Superintendent of Reading School District, where he was named the 2021 Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. His experience promoting student achievement, equity, and access to educational programming for all students and commitment to fiscal responsibility has earned him national recognition as a “School Board Savvy Superintendent.”
Under Dr. Mumin’s leadership, PDE has awarded more than $8 million in competitive Safe Schools Targeted grants to 166 schools to improve school safety, awarded $6.7 million in grant funding to 100 schools to enable more high school students to enroll in dual credit programs, and invested more than $4.1 million in funding for 21 libraries in 15 counties for public library construction and rehabilitation projects. Secretary Mumin also launched a new CTE program to prepare students for careers in education, convened a working group of college and university presidents to develop meaningful reforms to Pennsylvania’s higher education system, and participated in a roundtable discussion with Governor Shapiro and Allentown students about Black Mental Health.
Commissioner Michael Humphreys
Commissioner Humphreys previously served as Acting Insurance Commissioner under Governor Tom Wolf and brings 15 years of insurance experience to his role, previously serving as Chief of Staff for the Insurance Department for more than three years and as Assistant Commissioner for Insurance at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.
Under his leadership in the Shapiro Administration, Commissioner Humphreys has led the Department’s efforts to strengthen enforcement and compliance of mental health parity laws in Pennsylvania to make mental health parity a true reality in the Commonwealth. Commissioner Humphreys has overseen the Department’s efforts to increase and strengthen its review processes of mental health and substance use disorder coverage in 2024 health plans, launched a new round of market conduct examinations targeting insurer compliance with parity laws, and is working to carry out Governor Shapiro’s priority of improved response times for professional licensing and pushing the department to work efficiently and effectively for Pennsylvania’s licensed insurance producers – including already reducing the processing time by half for most producer licensing applications.
Commissioner Cook becomes Pennsylvania’s first Senate-confirmed state fire commissioner and brings more than 36 years of experience in emergency services. Before serving in the Shapiro Administration, Commissioner Cook was the Deputy Fire Commissioner under Governor Tom Wolf. Commissioner Cook previously served as administrator of the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy and assistant fire chief of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire.
In this role, Commissioner Cook leads the development and operation of Pennsylvania’s emergency service training program and supports the Commonwealth’s 2,400 fire departments and personnel. Under his leadership, Cook has modernized training opportunities to improve access to the State Fire Academy, expanded recruitment and retention outreach from the Office of State Fire Commissioner, and made fire prevention/community risk reduction a priority for the office going forward.
MEDIA CONTACT: ra-gvgovpress@pa.gov
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