SEATTLE – Casey Family Programs has hired Carol Ann (Cari) DeSantis, CEO of the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families, as Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications to help advance Casey’s 2020 Strategy for foster care in America.
Casey Family Programs’ 2020 Strategy has three goals:
- To safely reduce the number of children in foster care by 50 percent by the year 2020
- To convince federal and state lawmakers to reinvest savings to create and sustain long term improvements in the child welfare system
- To improve the education, mental health and employment outcomes for youth in foster care so they can become self-sufficient, healthy adults
DeSantis will join Casey Family Program’s executive team on June 30, 2008 to provide strategic direction to the foundation’s communications, partnerships, public policy and research initiatives.
“Cari is an outstanding child welfare strategist and administrator. She has provided skilled direction that has made Delaware a national leader for providing safer and more stable environments for children,” said William C. Bell, President and CEO of Casey Family Programs. “We are fortunate that Cari will bring her expertise to Casey Family Programs as we advance our 2020 Strategy to improve the lives of vulnerable children across the United States.”
Among her responsibilities, DeSantis will provide organization-wide leadership in strategic communications planning, programming, positioning, and management. She will lead and direct national development of strategic business partnerships; establish and maintain successful corporate and nonprofit alliances to influence positive public policy reform; and work to increase resources and support for local, state and national constituencies – including the coordination of strategic partnerships with national foundations, governments, universities, businesses and other institutions that affect the welfare of children, youth and families in foster care.
She will also continue the development of Casey’s public policy agenda in concert with key Casey leaders, overseeing Casey’s Washington, D.C.-based public policy function to ensure effective education of key federal and state policymakers.
DeSantis currently leads more than 1,300 employees and manages a $170 million annual budget for a department that oversees statewide services for children and families, including child welfare, family services, mental and behavioral health, substance abuse treatment, and juvenile justice and rehabilitation.
Since becoming CEO of the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families in 2001, she has led the transformation of a department that once faced a crippling deficit, crisis history, internal conflict and low public confidence. Under her leadership, the department has developed a clear vision, strategic direction, improved internal and external collaboration, improved its financial picture, enhanced customer service and renewed its credibility.
She introduced the “Think of the Child First” vision statement, reforming the foster care system, leveraging mental health services into child welfare and juvenile justice, and reducing out-of-home care 23 percent while dramatically improving permanency and safety for children.
"Helping children and families in crisis find safety, stability, self-esteem, and a sense of hope about the future has been my driving passion for the past eight years,” DeSantis said. “I am truly honored to become part of the Casey Family Programs team as it expands its important work in addressing the needs of the more than one-half-million American children in foster care.”
Before joining Delaware, DeSantis served as a consultant, providing guidance in strategic planning, marketing communications and business development for private, nonprofit and government agencies in health care and social services.
Earlier in her extensive career DeSantis was the director of marketing and then vice president of corporate development at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, DE. Before that she was the advertising manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware. She began her career as an editor and reporter at Delaware Today magazine.
DeSantis holds a master’s degree in liberal arts with a medical ethics concentration and a bachelor’s degree in English/journalism, both from the University of Delaware.
DeSantis is president of the board of directors of the American Public Human Services Association, she has served as chair of the National Council of State Human Services Administrators, and she was Board Chair of Central American Medical Outreach, an international humanitarian organization based in Ohio. She also is an author of nonfiction books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles.