The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) announced Monday that Interim Division of Youth Services (DYS) Director Betty Guhman will take on the role permanently. Guhman has served as interim director of DYS since late July.
Guhman began her career as a protective service worker for what is now the DHS Division of Children and Family Services in 1973. In 1977, she was named deputy commissioner of the newly formed Division of Youth Services.
These positions were the beginning of a long career in public service, including time as a tenured professor at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Social Work and the director of the Fulbright School of Public Affairs. She also served as a Chief of Staff when Hutchinson was a Congressman and as Chief of Staff and advisor when he served as first Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Guhman had served since 2014 as a senior advisor to Hutchinson, where her primary duty was to remain cognizant of developments that impacted DHS in general and child welfare.
“I look forward to meeting with everyone involved in the system, especially judges as I work to ensure that the services we are buying are meeting the needs of our youth and the courts, “ Guhman said. “I’m also putting a greater emphasis on using data to drive decisions and providing more alternatives to commitment.”
Guhman has a bachelor’s in social work from the University of Arkansas and a master’s in social work administration from University of Arkansas at Little Rock.