SEATTLE – Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation dedicated solely to providing and improvingand ultimately preventing the need for—foster care, announced today the hiring of David Berns, currently the director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, as executive vice president of Child and Family Services. Effective July 10, 2006, Berns will lead Casey’s direct services, which serve children, youth and families in field offices located across the U.S. Berns fills the executive role vacated by William C. Bell, who was named the foundation’s president and CEO in January 2006.
“We are extremely fortunate to add one of the nation’s most qualified individuals in the foster care and child welfare community to our executive leadership team,” said William C. Bell, president and CEO of Casey Family Programs. “David Berns has a proven track record of leading large-scale systems and reform efforts that help ensure that children grow up safe, healthy and with permanent families and homes.”
Since August of 2003, Berns has served as the director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, where he successfully led a comprehensive reform of the state’s child welfare and human services programs. Berns’ leadership was instrumental in supporting passage of sweeping legislative reforms for Child Protective Services, and budget increases to assist in the implementation of those reforms. Prior to his work in Arizona, Berns served as director of the El Paso County (Colorado) Department of Human Services, director of the Office of Children’s Services for Michigan’s Department of Social Services, and director of Social Services in Marquette, Michigan.
“I’m honored to join an organization and executive leadership team that has such a long history of innovation and service, and a clear roadmap for strengthening youth, families and our communities,” said Berns. “I’m excited to add my energies to helping Casey Family Programs be a voice for America’s most vulnerable children.”
Casey Family Programs operates across the country and collaborates with foster, kinship and adoptive parents to provide safe, permanent and loving families for youth in foster care. The foundation also works with counties, states, and American Indian and Alaska Native tribes to improve services and outcomes for the more than 500,000 young people in out-of-home care.