BALTIMORE - Maryland Governor-Elect Wes Moore announced cabinet appointments Friday. Appointed positions include the Secretary of Emergency Management, the Secretary of Public Safety and Corrections, Deputy Chief of Staff of Public Safety and Homeland Security, and the Secretary of Information Technology.
“Today, I’m proud to announce the addition of these incredibly experienced and diverse leaders,” said Moore. “I’ve said since the beginning that this will be our decade, Maryland, and I know these public servants are going to help us build the future we want to see here in Maryland.”
Russell Strickland will join the Moore-Miller administration as a reappointment, as he was initially appointed Secretary of Emergency Management in 2021 by Governor Larry Hogan. Before this appointment, Strickland served as Executive Director for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency beginning in 2015. During this time, Strickland directed operations during 12 states of emergency and seven presidentially declared major disasters.
Carolyn Scruggs was appointed as the acting Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services by Hogan and started on Jan. 1. She has over 27 years of experience in the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, including leading several facilities as warden of facility administrator. On the corrections side, Scruggs has managed everything from booking to security, dietary to case management, and programs to facility maintenance. She pioneered the concept of large-scale reentry fairs and spearheaded the department’s postsecondary education programs for the incarcerated.
Harold Frank is joining as Deputy Chief of Staff of Public Safety and Homeland Security. He had a career in law enforcement for 28 years and has a background in crisis management, knowledge of fiscal responsibility, and development of policies and procedures. After retiring from law enforcement, Frank served in a variety of security roles within the Maryland state government, like helping to lead the Maryland Port Administration as Director of Security and as Senior Advisor and Director of Homeland Security, Emergency Management, and Rail Safety in the Maryland Department of Transportation. In 2019, Governor Larry Hogan appointed Frank as the Statewide Interoperability Coordinator for the Maryland Department of State Police.
Katie Savage is the leader of the Defense Digital Service of the Department of Defense, where she works with programmers, designers, engineers, and data scientists. Katie helped lead the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 response, including the development of a mobile tracking application, cybersecurity measures to ensure safe vaccine manufacturing and delivery as part of Operation Warp Speed, and the development of an emergency communication software toolkit for officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She also developed a digital employment verification tool to expedite visa applications for Afghan refugees and families applying for U.S. asylum and launched the digitization of the world’s largest collection of over 50 million human tissue samples at the Joint Pathology Center, which led to advanced research treating cancer and other diseases. Before working at the Department of Defense, Savage was Director of Operations & Services at the City Tech Collaborative for the city of Chicago.