PORT ANGELES — The public is invited to a June 30 reception for Iva Burks, who is retiring as director of Clallam County Health and Human Services.
The cake-and-coffee reception will be from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ meeting room (160) on the main floor of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Burks is stepping down after more than 10 years at the helm of a department that provides environmental health services, human services and public health services.
She became director of Clallam County Health and Human Services in February 2006.
Prior to that, Burks was regional administrator for the Louisiana Office of Addictive Disorders, treating alcoholics, drug addicts and compulsive gamblers in a nine-parish district of more than 500,000 residents.
She earned a master’s degree in social work in Louisiana. She applied to be Clallam County’s Health and Human Services director in 2001 and 2005.
Burks’ official retirement date is June 30.
‘Too big for one person’
County Administrator Jim Jones has said the Health and Human Services director’s job has become “too big for one person.”
To that end, Burks will be replaced by two longtime employees of the department: Andy Brastad and Kim Yacklin.
Brastad, current environmental health director and a 30-year county employee, will assume the role of health and human services director.
Yacklin, HHS administrative coordinator and a 28-year county employee, will fill a newly created position of assistant health and human services director.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
