Valerie Arkoosh Selected as Montgomery County Commissioner

Democrat Valerie Arkoosh has been selected to fill the vacancy on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, the county confirmed Wednesday.

Arkoosh, 54, will fill the seat left vacant by Leslie Richards, who resigned to become Gov. Wolf’s Transportation Secretary. Arkoosh is scheduled to be sworn in Thursday morning.

Arkoosh, who ran for congress last year, is an anesthesiologist and a Springfield Township resident. Four candidates were interviewed for the position on the county commissioners, the Times Herald reported.

The county offered the following bio for Arkoosh:

Arkoosh is a longtime resident of Montgomery County who has been engaged in public health policy development across all levels of government during her impressive career. She is a nationally-recognized public health expert. Until recently, she was Adjunct Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.

She sought the Democratic nomination in 2014 for the 13th Congressional District seat now held by Brendan Boyle. Arkoosh is a graduate of the University Of Nebraska College Of Medicine and has a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She performed her residency at Jefferson Medical College in Anesthesiology with a special focus on Obstetrics. She has an undergraduate degree in economics from Northwestern University.

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