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 marginalized communities 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 of Connecticut’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program.  

She has been named one of the Power 25 in Healthcare and the Top 25 Leaders In Business by the Hartford Business Journal, 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 one of the 100 Women of Color in the New England region. 

Andrea is also a TedX speaker, with a talk entitled “Social Justice in a gymsuit.”  

She holds a BA in English from Rutgers University, a JD from New York Law School, and a Master of Arts in Religion with a focus on poverty alleviation from Yale Divinity School, where she was a Social Justice Scholar and received the Reverend Frederick Streets Social Justice Prize.