DSHS Secretary Dreyfus will take new post with national organization after first of the year

For Immediate Release: October 12, 2011

OLYMPIA � Department of Social and Health Services Secretary Susan N. Dreyfus has been named President and CEO of Milwaukee-based Families International, Inc. She will continue to lead DSHS through the special legislative session that begins Nov. 28 and will assume her new post in January of next year.

Families International, Inc. is the nonprofit parent organization of three, national nonprofit organizations: Alliance for Children and Families, United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA), and Ways to Work; and one for-profit company, FEI Behavioral Health.

�I want to thank Governor Gregoire for the opportunity to serve in this beautiful state. I have come to love Washington and to respect and admire its people and those who have devoted their lives and their careers to public service,� Dreyfus said. �My life is forever blessed for the time I have spent here.

�There will be an opportunity during the time I have left here to celebrate what we have been able to accomplish in the last two and a half years, thanks to my leadership team, our staff and our many community partners who have been willing to join me in leadership as we have faced unprecedented economic challenges,� Dreyfus said. �But right now we have some very important work to do during the special session to help the Department and the state emerge from the impacts of this great recession and stay true to the values of Washington state. I look forward to working diligently with the governor and legislators through the special session.�

�I asked Susan to join us as a change agent, a visionary and a leader. She has repeatedly confirmed my confidence in her. She has managed an extremely complex agency through one of the greatest challenges possible and has done so with tenacity, vision and positive results,� Gregoire said. �Her departure is a loss to our state and to my team, who has come to rely on her insight and constant drive. I understand and respect her personal and professional decision to return home to Wisconsin and continue her work at the national level and am glad she will remain through the special legislative session to tackle yet another unimaginable challenge.�

Gregoire appointed Dreyfus DSHS Secretary in May of 2009. Before coming to Washington, Dreyfus served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Alliance for Children and Families and Families International in Wisconsin, where her husband, Lee S. Dreyfus Jr., serves as a Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge.

Dreyfus will be president and CEO of Families International, Inc.; president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families; CEO of Ways to Work; CEO of UNCA; and a board member of FEI Behavioral Health. She will replace Peter Goldberg, who died suddenly on Aug. 12, 2011.

Gregoire is expected to announce an interim appointment before the end of the special legislative session.