PORT ANGELES — Iva Burks is a native Northwesterner who says she accidentally was born in New York state.
Clallam County is where her heart lies.
Burks applied twice to be the director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, the first time in September 2001, again late last year.
The job went to Joanne Dille 4½ years ago, but Burks knew she and her husband would return.
They’d fallen so in love with the North Olympic Peninsula that they bought land on Freshwater Bay.
That’s the Burkses’ home now — and you can bet she won’t be leaving.
Burks has headed the department since February, coming from Shreveport, La. She had gone to Louisiana to earn her master’s degree in social work and wound up staying 34 years.
She left a job where she managed a nine-parish (county) district of the state’s Addictive Disorders division that treated alcoholics, drug addicts and compulsive gamblers.
Her region served 525,000 residents — more than 78 times the size of Clallam County.
Burks says she doesn’t feel cramped, however, heading Health and Human Services, which has four divisions spread throughout the Clallam County Courthouse and employs 37 full-time employees and several part-time workers.
About 80 volunteers also aid the department.
