I’m excited to announce that Jody Becker will be joining us as Deputy Secretary of Programs for Children and Families. She’ll start on March 16th. She has a long work history and series of successes in supporting families and children, including receiving the Governor’s Award for Leadership and Management in 2015. I am particularly excited about this part of her official bio:
Jody Becker, MSW, Ph.D., has over 25 years of experience in both the public and non-profit sectors. She has served as an executive leader, public administrator, researcher, legislative liaison and social worker at local, state and national levels. She has spent part of her career living and working in Indian Country, focused on issues related to racial disproportionality, historical trauma, national Indian child welfare policy, juvenile justice, behavioral health and government-to-government relationships. In each of these roles, she has remained steadfast to her purpose to instill hope and promote humanity where it is often times needed the most.
Our next step in the coming weeks is to finalize and share the next layer of our organization model, including the Deputy Secretary of Operations and Infrastructure and assistant secretaries. We will also be able to share more information about the organizational units within the five buckets I shared with you previously:
- The units reporting to each deputy
- The current teams and functions assigned to those units
- A first look at how the six-region approach will function in July.
I am excited to have such a strong new voice working with me as we continue building this new agency.
Sincerely,
Secretary Ross Hunter