Boulder County on Tuesday announced it has hired a new Housing and Human Services director bringing to a close a months-long recruiting effort to fill the role left vacant in July when former director Frank Alexander left to take a position with Casey Family Programs.
Williams “has extensive knowledge of the many areas addressed under our Housing & Human Services umbrella. He has served in state and local government offices, providing leadership and direction to child welfare and child protection programs, health and human service programs at the county level, and financial compliance oversight in a government setting,” county commissioners stated in a letter to the community. “He began his career as a caseworker and knows firsthand being on the front line working with children, families, and adults in complex social situations.”
Most recently, Williams served as chief program and policy officer in the Bureau of Behavioral Health for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, where he was responsible for ensuring quality behavioral health care coverage at sustainable costs, according to the letter.
Williams has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; a master’s in government accountancy from Rutgers University, and a master’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, according to the letter.
“Filling the HHS director position with someone well-qualified and highly experienced was important to all of us. What we really like about Robert is that he has a lot of experience in various roles with housing and human services programs,” Commissioner Matt Jones stated in the letter. “He started as a caseworker, which gives him firsthand experience working with people on a personal level, and he is strong on the data side, which helps improve our programs. We have a long tradition at Boulder County of using data-driven criteria to inform our decisions so that we can bring all the programs together in effective, seamless service delivery. Robert adds to that strong background and with his level of experience, we should hit the ground running.”
Williams’ start date has not yet been set to allow time for him to move to Colorado from Illinois.
Correction: The headline on the original posting of this story originally misstated the name of the Housing and Human Services Department.
