 Sarah Gagne-Holmes joined the senior leadership team at DHHS just two months after Mills took office in 2019. She previously worked as a health care attorney and as a policy advisor. And Mills named Gagne-Holmes acting commissioner in May after the agency's longtime leader, Gene Lambert, stepped down to work on national policy issues. Gagne-Holmes' nomination will have to be confirmed by the Maine Senate. But Senator Joe Baldacci, who co-chairs the legislature's Health and Human Services Committee, said he was pleased with the nomination.