Blue to step down as state DHS interim director

PROVIDENCE – While the R.I. Department of Human Services is still searching for a permanent leader, the department will see another administration change at the top.

Celia J. Blue, who took over as the department’s interim director after former DHS Director Courtney Hawkins resigned back in May, will be leaving the department at the end of this month. Matt Sheaff, spokesperson for Gov. Daniel J. McKee, confirmed Blue’s resignation Wednesday to Providence Business News.

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Sheaff said Blue is leaving DHS to pursue an opportunity with a Massachusetts-based nonprofit she helped establish, but did not specifically name the organization.

Blue, in 2015, co-founded the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition, where she serves as its CEO and president. The coalition, according to its mission statement, is “dedicated to eradicating the racial inequities among women of color created by structural, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized racism.”

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“We thank Director Blue for her dedication and public service to the state of Rhode Island,” Sheaff said. Blue had also worked as DHS’s chief administrative officer and was chief of staff for the R.I. Department of Transportation.

Yvette Mendes, current chief of staff for the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, will serve as DHS’s new interim director. A permanent director for DHS has not been named. Sheaff did not immediately respond to questions on how the hiring process is going for a new leader and when a new leader will be brought aboard.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.