Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs on Tuesday started filling her Cabinet, appointing new directors of five state agencies that deal with human services, from health care to housing.
“As a social worker, I know firsthand the importance of these crucial agencies to the lives of the people who need them,” Hobbs, a Democrat, said in a statement accompanying the announcement.
She called them “the finest minds Arizona has to offer” and said their mission is “to transform our state’s health, social, and safety systems so that they work for everyone across Arizona.”
All the appointees come from outside the current ranks of state government, although several of them have state experience from past jobs and others have worked in positions that interact with state government.
Hobbs chose Carmen Heredia to run the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s version of Medicaid. Heredia currently is the chief executive officer of Valle del Sol, an Arizona based health care nonprofit where she has worked for 16 years. Valle del Sol runs 17 federally qualified health centers, with eight located in Maricopa County and nine in New Mexico. The agency also provides behavioral health services.
Angie Rodgers will be the new director of the state Department of Economic Security, a sprawling state agency that handles welfare benefits, job assistance and child care, among other duties. Rodgers will leave her post of nearly 10 years as president and CEO of the Association of Arizona Food Banks.
The Department of Economic Security is not new to her; she worked there previously in the Children, Youth and Families division, which has since been spun off into the Department of Child Safety. Rodgers also was a human services policy adviser to former Gov. Janet Napolitano, with oversight of DES and the Department of Juvenile Corrections.
Matthew Stewart is tapped to become the fourth director of DCS, the state’s child welfare agency. A former child safety specialist with the agency, he later became a training manager and helped launch the agency’s African-American Disparity Committee, formed to reduce the disproportionate share of Black and minority families under DCS supervision, before leaving the agency.
He founded Our Brother Our Sister, a nonprofit formed to support families and reduce the need for child removals by DCS.
Dr. Theresa Cullen will be the next director of the state Department of Health Services, filling a post that has had an interim director since August 2021.
Cullen will join the state ranks from Pima County, where she has served as a public health director since May 2020, joining during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Cullen started her career with the Indian Health Service and later served as the chief medical information officer for the U.S. Veterans Health Administration. She is a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Public Health Service’s Commissioned Corps, and retired as a rear admiral and Assistant U.S. Surgeon General.
Joan Serviss is leaving her post as executive director of the Arizona Housing Coalition to become director of the Department of Housing in the Hobbs administration. Since September 2010, Serviss has run the coalition, which works to end homelessness in Arizona and advocates for safe, affordable housing for all Arizonans.
A spokeswoman for Hobbs said the incoming administration has not received any resignation letters from the directors currently running the agencies, but is working on a smooth transition.
All of the appointments are subject to confirmation by the GOP-controlled state Senate. Appointees can serve for up to a year without confirmation.
Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.
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