WA ESD Commissioner LeVine Accepts Role In Biden Administration

OLYMPIA, WA — The head of Washington's Employment Security Department is leaving to take a role with the Biden-Harris administration.

The ESD confirmed Friday that Commissioner Suzi LeVine will be leaving her position at the end of January. LeVine was appointed to head the ESD by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018. Following her announcement, the governor released a statement wishing her well.

“I wish Suzi the very best in her next adventure. Her dedication and hard-work will add value to the Biden-Harris administration," Inslee said. "In our state, she led the Employment Security Department through an extremely challenging time and I never doubted that she had the best interests of working Washingtonians at the heart of all her endeavors.”

As head of the ESD, LeVine managed the distribution of unemployment benefits in Washington state — a hot button issue for many, given the economic downfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the governor has championed LeVine and the ESD's work handing the massive spike in unemployment due to the coronavirus, during that time the ESD also lost hundreds of millions of dollars to an international fraud ring making false unemployment claims.

Much of that money has since been reclaimed and the ESD has restructured to make their vetting process more thorough — still, many maintain the money should not have been lost in the first place, and as The Seattle Times reports, some critics place the blame for that loss on LeVine.

The Employment Security Department, meanwhile, credit LeVine's leadership for helping launch the Paid Family and Medical Leave program, the expansion of Career Connect Washington grants, and notes that, under her leadership, the department ended up distributing a total $13.5 billion in unemployment benefits to Washingtonians struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.

LeVine says she's proud of the work she and her team accomplished.

“From the moment I started with the agency, I recognized my role as Commissioner is a position with profound purpose that has a positive impact on millions of lives as well as no shortage of really hard problems to solve," said LeVine. "I am humbled and honored to have served my state in this way these past two and a half years and look forward to applying my accumulated knowledge and experience to some of the hardest challenges our nation has ever faced.”

Before her appointment to Washington's Employment Security Department, LeVine served the Obama administration as the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is still unknown what role she will take in the Biden administration — the administration has said it will release more information on her duties when she begins on Feb. 1.

When LeVine steps down, she will be replaced by the ESD's Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Cami Feek, who will serve as the interim commissioner until the governor appoints a permanent replacement.

This article originally appeared on the Lakewood-JBLM Patch