Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday that the state's top public health official, state Department of Health Acting Secretary Alison Beam, will resign from her role at the end of 2021.

The governor said he would nominate Department of Health Executive Deputy Secretary Keara Klinepeter as the new acting secretary.

“I am proud to have worked with Acting Secretary Beam over the past several years, and the commonwealth has been fortunate to have had the benefit of her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic – especially as the Department of Health oversaw a massive vaccine roll-out over the course of the past year,” Wolf said in a statement.

Wolf's announcement follows the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's rescindment of the Department of Health's school mask mandate, enacted earlier in the fall by Beam.

Read more in Tuesday's Butler Eagle.