CaCalifornia
Disability
NEWS REPORT
#074-2006 September 1, 2006 - Friday
Marty Omoto, Director/Organizer
To Respond to THIS email report reply to: martyomoto@rcip.com
CDCAN website: www.cdcan.us
DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES
* GOVERNOR APPOINTS THERESE DELGADILLO AS NEW DIRECTOR
* ACTED SINCE FEBRUARY AS INTERIM DIRECTOR AND CHIEF DEPUTY
* APPOINTMENT WIDELY PRAISED BY ADVOCATES ACROSS STATE
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today (September 1),
the appointment of Therese Degadillo as the new permanent director of
the Department of Developmental Services (DDS). Degadillo has been
serving since February 17 as interim director and chief deputy director
of the agency which oversees regional center funded community-based
services and developmental center services for over 200,000 infants,
children and adults with developmental disabilities. The appointment
requires approval by the State Senate. Disability advocates across the
State widely praised her appointment as interim director last February
and the announcement of her permanent appointment as director.
“The combination of Terri's
wealth of state
and federal government professional experience and her deep-felt
personal passion for providing service to persons with developmental
disabilities will help the Department of Developmental Services achieve
its mission,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Terri is perfectly
suited
to develop policy and programs that support the ability of persons with
developmental disabilities to live in the most integrated setting
possible.”
Delgadillo, 48, is a Republican and from Sacramento and previously
served as deputy secretary of the California Health and Human Services
Agency under Kim Belshe, and was from 2000 to 2004 deputy director for
the
Department of Health Services. Prior to that Delgadillo served from
1997 to 2000 as acting undersecretary and deputy secretary of program
for
the California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, legislative and
policy director for US Senators John Seymour and Paul Coverdell from
1991 to 1997, and chief legislative consultant for the US Senate
Select Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Earlier in her career she
worked in special education. Delgadillo
holds a Master of social work from California
State University, Sacramento and a Bachelor of Arts in social science
from California State University, Stanislaus.
“I have long held a strong
personal interest
in and dedication to issues involving persons with developmental
disabilities and their families,” said Delgadillo. “I am honored by the
Governor's appointment and look forward to continuing to lend my
expertise to the important issues facing so many California families.”
She replaces Cliff Allenby who left the
department in November to take over as the head of the Department of
Social Services, which oversees the State's In-home Supportive Services
program, SSI/SSP, community care licensing, CALWorks and other critical
services.
CDCAN News
Reports and Alerts
These CDCAN Reports are
partially funded by a small grant from the USC UCEDD, Grant #90DD0540
from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. The opinions
expressed or content in these reports do not necessarily reflect the
views or opinions of the USC UCEDD.
The California
Disability Community
Action Network is a
non-partisan link to tens of thousands of Californians in every
community, including people of color, people of every type of
disability, including people with physical disabilities, people with
developmental and
other disabilities, people with traumatic brain and other injures,
people with mental health needs, seniors, people with MS, Alzheimer's
and others, and all of their families, community organizations and
providers,
direct care and other workers, and other advocates. These action alerts
and news reports is for all of them. If you would like to get on this
distribution (and conversely, get off of it) please send an email with
that request to: martyomoto@rcip.com OR sign up
via the NEW CDCAN
website at www.cdcan.us Sharing information is
part of our organizing
effort. Please feel free to forward or copy this (attribution is
nice but not necessary). We're all in this together!
MANY THANKS to Training Toward Self Reliance, UCP, California NAELA,
Californians for Disability Rights, Inc (CDR), CHANCE Inc, Parents
Helping Parents, Arriba,
Strategies Toward Empowering
People, Parents Helping Parents, Asian American parents groups,
Resources for Independent Living and many other Independent Living
Centers, several regional centers, People First chapters, IHSS workers,
other self advocacy and family support groups, developmental center
families, and hundreds of
individuals. Thanks also to partnerships and the good people with the
State Council on Developmental Disabilities, and also the Department of
Health Services, the Department of Developmental Services, Department
of Social Services and the CA Health and Human Services Agency and
other agencies, and the State Legislature and staff, the Legislative
Analyst Office. Good people who do good things can make a difference
together.