Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/672196
MAY / JUNE 2016 | Washington Athletic Club Magazine | 31 the department's strategic planning and program development, managing a staff of 400 and an annual budget of $500 million. The department works to plan, fund, contract for, and directly provide education, housing, senior services, and veteran support as well as solutions for domestic violence, homelessness, mental health, and addiction. And that's just the start. "It's a very broad range of human services," Adrienne says. Facilitating services Since taking over two and a half years ago, she has worked hard to eliminate obstacles for King County residents seeking services. "Rather than an individual having to separately seek out each of the services they need, we're creating a much more integrated way for people to seek help," Adrienne explains, pointing out various whiteboards around the DCHS offices. As an example, this April, the department unified the mental health and substance abuse systems. "There are quite a number of people who need both of those services," Adrienne says. She grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, just north of the Bronx, and moved to Seattle in 1991, graduating magna cum laude from the Seattle University law school in 1996. She also holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard. Adrienne's passion for public service stems from personal experience, including a loved one's battle with homelessness. Her department reaches well beyond homelessness, however, including implementation of Best Starts for Kids, which aims to support children in King County from early childhood through their teens and is supported by $65 million in annual property taxes. "That initiative really focuses on ensuring that children from the earliest age have what they need to be successful in life," Adrienne says. It also means some thinking at a kid level, hence the splash of playful decor. A gatekeeper King County Executive Dow Constantine named Adrienne to the top DCHS position in 2013. She moved over from her former position as executive director of the Medina Foundation. She also previously served as director of the city of Seattle's Office of Housing, and she teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. Adrienne works out in Women's Fitness several times weekly and decompresses in yoga classes. She's also active in the WAC Wine Club, and she recently hosted a dinner with a group of professional partners at Torchy's. "The WAC staff are great," she says. As head of DCHS, she serves as the gatekeeper between policy approval, planning and implementation. Nowhere can her relentless focus on program integration and data-driven solutions better be seen than on the whiteboards of The Chinook Building. Those solutions include decisions such as sending employment counselors to local food banks. The thinking is simple, she says: "We're going to the places where people need help." —Darrick Meneken is Managing Editor of WAC Magazine. We're going to the places where people need help." "