RICHMOND — Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) on Monday named John Littel as his choice for secretary of health and human resources, a post that will be especially critical as the state battles a surge in coronavirus hospitalizations.

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       Later Monday, Youngkin announced Fauquier County Sheriff Robert P. Mosier as his selection for secretary of public safety and homeland security.

       Littel is president of Magellan of Virginia, a for-profit managed-care firm that has administered mental health services for the state’s Medicaid recipients and uninsured children. During the campaign, Youngkin promised to improve the state’s mental health system.

       Youngkin, who takes office Saturday, also criticized the extent and duration of business and school shutdowns earlier in the pandemic under outgoing Gov. Ralph Northam (D). Northam had argued that the state could not begin to address the economic crisis until it got the health crisis under control.

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       In announcing his pick, Youngkin suggested that Littel will simultaneously protect the economy and public health.

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       “The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on Virginians across the Commonwealth, and John will play a pivotal role in overseeing our efforts in protecting Virginians’ lives and livelihoods," Youngkin said in a written statement.

       Youngkin also said Littel would help "fix our broken mental and behavioral health system, ensure Virginians have access to affordable, free-market healthcare options, and reform our healthcare safety net to save taxpayer dollars and improve healthcare outcomes.”

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       A graduate of the University of Scranton with a law degree from Catholic University, Littel has held senior roles at Amerigroup Corporation and Anthem. He also served as deputy secretary of health and human services in the 1990s under then-governor George Allen, a Regent University dean and a Heritage Foundation lawyer.

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       Mosier, who became Fauquier sheriff in 2016, has spent more than 30 years in local, county, federal and international law enforcement, according to Youngkin’s announcement. Getting his start as a police dispatcher at 19, Mosier has been sent on various overseas assignments by the State Department, including work on an international police task force in Bosnia.

       Youngkin ran on some law-and-order themes, blasting the state parole board for releasing certain violent felons amid the pandemic. As a Carlyle Group executive and leader of a church in Northern Virginia, Youngkin issued statements expressing sympathy for the cause of racial justice after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. But he adopted a tougher tone as a gubernatorial candidate.

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       Youngkin argued that the criminal-justice overhaul that Democrats led after Floyd’s murder favored criminals over victims and so demoralized police that agencies could not find recruits. Youngkin also had warned that Democrats would do away with “qualified immunity,” a legal doctrine used by law enforcement to shield officers from civil suits.

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       “Sheriff Mosier will play an important role in keeping our communities safe,” Youngkin said in a news release Monday. “We will get to work on this key priority by fully funding and raising pay for our law enforcement officers. Together, we will protect qualified immunity, and on Day One fire the Parole Board.”

       Mosier expressed outrage over Floyd’s May 2020 murder in a statement issued at the time to the Fauquier Times, calling it an “unthinkable death at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota.”

       “The death of George Floyd is flagrant,” he wrote. “How could this have happened? What was filmed in a video, by a bystander, showing a police officer compressing the neck of a suspect for several minutes with other officers watching is appalling.”