Andrea Barton Reeves is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services. With over twenty years of experience in Human Services and advocacy, she has dedicated her career to ensuring equity, dignity and accessibility to services and supports for thousands of residents throughout the state.
An attorney by training, Andrea spent ten years as an Attorney for the minor child and a guardian ad litem, advocating for and protecting the rights of children in family, probate and child welfare courts across Connecticut. She also served as the CEO of Harc, Inc. in Hartford, supporting people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
In 2020, she became the founding CEO Connecticut’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program, starting the state’s first new agency in 12 years from scratch, during a global pandemic. Today, over 200,000 individuals and families have receive paid family leave benefits.
The Hartford Business Journal has named her to its list of the Power 25 in Healthcare, the Top 25 Leaders In Business, as well as appearing twice on that publication’s list of New Leaders to Watch. She has also been twice named to the CT NAACP’s list of the 100 Most Influential Blacks in Connecticut, and was recognized as 100 Women of Color in the New England region in 2020. Andrea is also a TedX speaker, with a talk entitled “social Justice in a gymsuit.” She holds a BA in English from Rutgers University, and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School. She is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Ethics at Yale Divinity School, where she is as a Social Justice Scholar.