Health Department Leadership Roster Changes with Retirement, Addition

June 28, 2023

Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Deputy Commissioner Margaret Kelly will retire on July 11, after four decades of public service in multiple agencies in state government, as well as with the City of St. Paul.   

In related news, MDH has hired Maria Sarabia as the new assistant commissioner for the department’s health improvement bureau. She will start her new role on July 19. Sarabia assumes the post held by Mary Manning prior to her retirement earlier this year. 

Kelly played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in helping keep MDH operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the duration of the response, she juggled an array of management responsibilities ranging from operations to finance to external partnerships. Prior to that role, she served multiple stints at the agency as budget director, chief financial officer and assistant commissioner. 

In addition to her contributions at MDH, Kelly served as the state’s chief budget officer at Minnesota Management and Budget from 2011 to 2018, where she helped assemble state budgets for then-Gov. Mark Dayton and navigated a variety of fiscal challenges. Among her chief accomplishments in that role was helping to lift the state’s finances from deficit to surplus and restoring the state’s AAA bond ratings. 

In her new role as assistant commissioner, Sarabia will oversee the department’s Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division, Community Health Division as well as the Child and Family Health Division.  

Sarabia previously served as the director of aging and disability services for Ramsey County’s Home and Community Based Services, where she directed operations and service delivery, helping adults, children and elders with disabilities access health care services. Prior to that role, she served in several other roles with the county including the Saint Paul – Ramsey County Public Health Department. She also served in the county’s Human Resources Department as manager of diversity, inclusion and organizational development. In that role she led operational management of employee engagement activities and the county’s learning management system.