Governor Appoints Palo Alto Resident to State Medical Board

Gov. Jerry Brown announced last week that he has named Palo Alto resident Sharon Levine to the Medical Board of California.

The Medical Board of California is the state agency that licenses medical doctors, investigates complaints and disciplines those who violate the law, and promotes access to quality medical care through the board's licensing and regulatory functions.

Levine, 65, was also appointed to the medical board by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. She has served as the associate executive director of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group since 1991, before which she had a long career as a pediatrician and physician manager. She has also worked as a staff pediatrician for the Georgetown University Community Health Plan and as a clinical associate in infant nutrition at the National Institutes of Health, and she was director of pediatric services for Montgomery Georgetown Pediatric Clinic. She earned her medical degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Levine is one of five of Brown's appointees from last week.

Piedmont's Dan Richard, 60, was named to the Board of the California High-Speed Authority. Richard served as BART's board president twice between 1992 and 2004, and served as Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s senior vice president of public policy and governmental relations from 1997 to 2006.

In addition, Paul Benedetto and Anna Brannen, both of Elk Grove, were appointed as deputy secretaries at the California Technology Agency, and Joan Hancock of Sacramento was appointed to the Contractors' State License Board.

Bay City News contributed to this report.