Three City Staff Members Announce Departure, Two Appointments Announced

Three senior staff members for the City of Philadelphia will be departing, the mayor announced Friday.  

Dr. Donald Schwarz, Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity and Health Commissioner, Anne Marie Ambrose, Department of Human Services Commissioner, and Suzanne Biemiller, First Deputy Chief of Staff, announced they will be leaving their posts. 

“These three individuals are some of the most highly respected, trusted, impressive public servants that I have ever had the opportunity to work with,” said Mayor Nutter. 

Susan Kretsge, a graduate of Temple University with 39 years of experience working in City government, will replace Dr. Schwarz as Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity.  She has served as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Health and Opportunity since 2008.

Mayor Nutter appointed Dr. James Buehler, MD, Drexel University School of Public Health Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy, as the new Health Commissioner. 

Mayor Nutter announced that Vanessa Garrett Harley, currently the Deputy Commissioner of the Children and Youth Division of DHS, will serve as the new Commissioner for the Department of Human Services.