On Tuesday, June 8, Mayor Mike McGinn appointed Dannette R. Smith, of Fairburn, Ga., as the new director of the Seattle Human Services Department. Smith currently is director of the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services, part of the State of Georgia Department of Human Services and the state’s largest human services agency.

Smith, who replaces Seattle’s Acting Human Services Director Kip Tokuda, begins work July 26. In Georgia, she led a staff of 1,300 and managed an annual budget of $96 million.

Previously, Smith served as director of human services agencies in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and Chicago. She received her B.S. degree from Eastern Michigan University and a Masters of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Seattle Human Services Department has an annual budget of $147.8 million and approximately 330 employees. The agency funds and operates programs to help people with low incomes, children, domestic-violence victims, seniors, immigrants and refugees and persons with disabilities.