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Maryland Human Services Secretary Rafael López is resigning, leaving behind an agency racked in the past year by the death of a foster child in state care, unsafe placement of foster children, fiscal challenges and oversight failures identified in audits.
In a statement Monday from Gov. Wes Moore’s (D) office, López said he is resigning effective Monday, Feb. 23, for “health-related reasons.” DHS Deputy Secretary Gloria Brown Burnett will serve as interim secretary until April 1, when former Baltimore County Administrative Officer Stacy L. Rodgers will take over as acting secretary.
Moore thanked López for his leadership over the agency, “especially during one of the most challenging times in the history of our state,” his statement said.
“Secretary López built a more solid foundation for service, and together we will continue to build upon that progress,” Moore said.
But lawmakers, who have increasingly been at loggerheads with the secretary in recent months, welcomed the change in leadership. Republican lawmakers in particular have been calling on Moore to fire López since October.
“I won’t miss him” Del. Steven J. Arentz (R-Upper Shore) said Monday. Arentz and López butted heads during an October meeting of the legislative Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, as the secretary defended the agency against auditors’ findings of department shortcomings.
“He was arrogant when he spoke to the committee,” Arentz said. “He was not my cup of tea. I’m happy he’s leaving.”
The announcement follows several legislative hearings over the last two weeks, where the secretary was absent for what aides said were health-related reasons.
In the statement from Moore’s office, López said it was an honor to serve as secretary.
“Though I am resigning my post as secretary for health-related reasons, I will always be invested in making sure that our people have access to the services and support they need to thrive,” López said in the statement. “It has been an honor to serve in the Moore-Miller Administration and I am immensely proud of the progress we have made in service to Marylanders.”
Moore praised López’s efforts to keep more foster kids with family members and trusted adults by prioritizing “kinship placements” so more children stay in familiar settings, rather than a group home or some other placement.
DHS also significantly cut down on the state’s “error payment rates” for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during López’s tenure, from “36% — second-highest in the nation in 2023 — to 13.64%,” the administration’s statement said, among other improvements.
López and other department officials have argued that the agency was in poor shape when the Moore administration came in, inheriting inadequate data systems and other challenges that had been decades in the making. Officials say the department has been working to overhaul their information technologies and improve efficiency within the agency.
But Del. Mike Griffith (R-Cecil and Harford), a former foster child and the lead sponsor of legislation in response to Ward’s death, questions how much of the agency’s challenges were due to prior administrations.
“While some of the problems in the Department go back years, the Secretary demonstrated time and again that he was not the agent of change the Department needed to keep children safe,” Griffith said in a written statement.
López and the department began to rack up controversies last year, starting with the secretary’s arrest in Washington, D.C., for driving under the influence back in January 2025. López pleaded guilty to the charge in December, in a deal that would dismiss the charge after six months.
Scrutiny ratcheted up in September, after a state audit showed the department failed to conduct comprehensive background checks on personnel working with children to weed out individuals with criminal histories. Seven registered sex offenders were found living in homes with children under court-approved guardianships, according to that audit.
Five days after the audit was released, the body of Kanaiyah Ward, 16, was found Sept. 22 in a room at a Residence Inn by Marriott in Baltimore. The cause of death was ruled a suicide after she intentionally overdosed on an over-the-counter allergy medication.
A month later, López ordered an end to the practice of placing foster children in hotel rooms when other options are not available. There are currently no children in DHS care who are living in hotels, officials testified last week, though a handful of kids who were in the hospital for treatment had their stays extended due to a lack of adequate out-of-home placements.
Department officials have been answering to lawmakers over these controversies and more during the 2026 session.
Democrats were also growing “frustrated” with López’s absence from two committee meetings covering the fiscal challenges and oversight issues at the agency in recent weeks, though he did attend one on Feb. 11.
“I am very disappointed that the secretary is not here. I just am,” said Sen. Malcolm Augustine (D-Prince George’s) during a Feb. 5 meeting of the Budget and Taxation Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.
Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore) promised to keep pressure on during the leadership transition at the department.
“When there are persistent management failures, troubling audit findings, and operational breakdowns, simply swapping out leadership does not fix the problem,” Hershey said in a statement. “The Department of Human Services has faced repeated and serious audit concerns, and the General Assembly will not turn a blind eye to those issues just because a resignation has occurred.”
Rodgers has held a variety of local, state and federal positions over the last three decades that directly tie into the programs under the department. Most recently, she was the first Black person to serve as Baltimore County administrative officer, overseeing day-to-day operations for the county government and playing a part in the county’s COVID-19 response.
Before her time with the county, she was the director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services and served in leadership roles at the Social Security Administration under the Obama administration, including time as the agency’s chief of staff, according to the governor’s statement.
Sen. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that looks at DHS programs, said he trusts Rodgers to take on the many challenges at the department, saying she is “battle tested” and doesn’t “need training wheels.”
“We have a leader that has a plethora of knowledge. Just looking forward to working in partnership to make sure we bring the agency in line — the way that Marylanders can be proud of,” McCray said.
“I think it’s important, anytime anybody is in public service, to thank them for their leadership and services that they gave to the state of Maryland. I do not take that lightly,” he said. “But let me be clear, I’m very excited about the leadership of Stacy Rogers.”
Maryland Matters reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.
