Secretary of Health and Human Resources
Janet Kelly
The Honorable Janet Vestal Kelly has a distinguished career in the public and private sectors, specializing in convening leaders to solve complex problems. She most recently served as Senior Advisor for Children and Families for Governor Glenn Youngkin. In this role, she spearheaded the Safe and Sound Task Force which successfully relocated hundreds of children in foster care out of sleeping in local social services offices. In addition, she led the Prompt Placement Task Force which increased access to state psychiatric hospitals. She was also a leading force behind the recently-signed kinship legislation and the Governor's transformational behavioral health plan, Right Help, Right Now.
From 2010-2014, Secretary Kelly served as Secretary of the Commonwealth in the McDonnell Administration. Because of her family’s personal adoption journey, she launched "Virginia Adopts: Campaign for 1,000.” This initiative matched 1,041 children with adoptive families by the last year of the Administration. She and her husband, Ryan, co-founded "America’s Kids Belong" and "Virginia's Kids Belong" to continue that initiative and are staunch advocates for children, families, and workers in the child welfare system.
Secretary Kelly has also served in public sector roles as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Attorney General, Press Secretary on Capitol Hill, and Legislative Assistant in the Virginia House of Delegates. She has also consulted on seven gubernatorial transitions and served on numerous child welfare-related boards and advisory committees.