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New family services administrator has a healthy resume
By COLLEEN JENKINS Department of Children and Families Secretary Jerry Regier on Wednesday named the woman in charge of Oregon's child protective services as the new administrator for DCF District 13, which includes Citrus and Hernando counties. Beth Englander, currently the state system of care manager for Oregon's Department of Human Services, will begin her new duties overseeing DCF services in the district -- which also includes Marion, Lake and Sumter counties -- on April 11. The appointment fills a gap left when Patrick Howard vacated the position last July. Acting district administrator Janice Johnson will return to her deputy district administrator role. Englander, 47, of Salem, Ore., will be the fourth permanent district administrator since the Legislature created District 13 in the early 1990s. The counties previously were part of a different DCF district. In Oregon, Englander is responsible for managing the system of care models applied to abused and neglected children who enter the state's child welfare system. She also prepares and tracks bills in the Legislature. "Beth has a wealth of social services experience and skills, particularly in the area of child protection," DCF spokesman Tim Bottcher said. Previously, the University of Maryland graduate worked more than 10 years with the Oregon Children's Services Division in Coos Bay, where she headed the county child welfare and family preservation services. She also represented the state in the collective bargaining process, an experience Johnson said will be particularly handy in District 13. DCF officials are negotiating with Kid's Central Inc., a regional consortium of care providers, to become the lead agency in charge of foster care, adoptions and related services in this region as part of the department's community-based care initiative. Englander will play a significant role in those negotiations, Johnson said. "It's exciting," Johnson said. "I think she'll be an invaluable asset to our district as we work with the lead agency to develop a system of care for the children in District 13." On Wednesday, Englander said she was looking forward to arriving in Florida at a time when Regier has promised to overhaul the department. DCF is the state's main social service agency. It investigates complaints of child abuse, helping troubled parents straighten out before the court again trusts them with their children, and aids clients who apply for Medicaid and other forms of government assistance. Trouble has plagued the department and district also at times. In District 13, the biggest problem was the poor job department workers did protecting Kayla McKean, a 6-year-old Clermont girl whose father abused and killed her. Several department workers were fired, and the case gathered statewide and even national publicity. The heavy load doesn't intimidate Englander, who has more than 500 hours of clinical, practice, system and management training in child welfare. In addition, she has served as director of student activities for Southwestern Oregon Community College and manager for youth employment and training programs for two Oregon counties. She said her job will be to provide leadership during the system changes in District 13 and accountability in the management of that system, both tasks she has faced before. "It's not something that's foreign to me at all," Englander, the mother of two sons, said during a telephone interview Wednesday evening.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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