Baltimore's previous Department of Social Services director returned to that role Wednesday after a nearly 10-month hiatus at a consulting firm.
Molly McGrath Tierney was selected in a joint appointment by Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Her return was hailed as a boon for city children and families by social service advocates, including Barbara Squires, director of leadership development at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
"She's very, very passionate about her work," Squires said. "She holds the interest of the kids in that system very close to her heart. She wants to do whatever it takes to improve their outcomes and their opportunities to be successful."
Tierney said she was eager to return to her old job. She pointed to a 60-percent drop in the number of city children in foster care during her previous seven-year tenure and said the agency had a 98 percent accuracy rate in processing food stamp benefits month after month.
She left the agency in late February to join Bennett Midland, a New York-based management consulting firm. She remained in Baltimore, where she advised government groups and nonprofits in management strategy and delivery of social services.
"This is the place I belong and the work I love doing," she said. "I am happy to be back."
Maryland Human Resources Secretary Ted Dallas said Tierney "distinguished herself as an innovative leader who helped transform the agency into what it is today."
In a message sent to the staff Monday, Dallas wrote, "We are fortunate and excited to have her back, and I have no doubt that she will help [the agency] continue to move forward."
Tierney replaces David Thompson, who served as interim director during her hiatus.
Before her departure last year, Tierney had been criticized for her decision to send dozens of Baltimore teens in foster care to Philadelphia to receive a high school diploma in one day. The Department of Social Services paid $40,000 to send the teens to a private Christian school where they took a series of exams, and if they passed, received a Pennsylvania diploma.
Tierney said the decision to send the youths to the school was an attempt to help a "small set of kids who haven't had the experience of success in a traditional educational setting."
"We have to take greater care in the future with things we try," Tierney said. "Lots of things look really great and shiny on a shelf. That's just not good enough. We need to take a look at the long term view."
Kevin Lindamood, president of Health Care for the Homeless, said Tierney is an "out-of-the-box thinker, someone who is undaunted by challenges and very committed to vulnerable people." And in a pursuit to find solutions to problems, he said, people can sometimes make a misstep.
"I've always admired her as someone who refuses to accept that intractable is a word," Lindamood said. "I think that's really the kind of leadership you what at top."
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