Joni Jones, the county operations division director for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, will retire Aug. 31, ending a 36-year career with the agency.
The division's new director will be Delia Anderson, now the assistant director.
Both moves were announced in a department news release Tuesday.
Jones, 58, has been the division director since 2001. The division is responsible for the department's 86 county officers, commodity distribution and applications for Medicaid and other public assistance.
Jones' career at the agency included successful efforts to modernize and automate much of the casework for public assistance programs statewide, department officials said.
"Joni has been a remarkable and steady leader during a time of tremendous change," John Selig, the department director, said in the release. "We each have a few people we hold up as models of public service, and Joni is one of mine."
Jones began her career at the department in 1978 in the research and statistics unit at a time when cardboard punch cards stored information.
"Back then, no one had even heard of a fax machine," Jones said. "Now we work with electronic case records and online applications, and everything is processed and stored in a 'cloud.' We've come a long way."
She served as chief budget officer for Medicaid from 1986 to 1995, oversaw the implementation of a welfare overhaul and led the state as it moved from paper coupons to electronic food stamp benefits.
Anderson, 49, currently manages the division's community services office, which distributes and monitors federal funding for community action agencies and other providers statewide. She has been with the department for eight years.
"Delia is the kind of leader that earns the respect of her staff by showing integrity, consistency and honesty," Selig said.
Anderson previously worked as vice president for institutional advancement at Philander Smith College, program services director for the Little Rock March of Dimes, vice president of programs and allocations for the Pulaski County United Way and programs and finance director for Little Rock Rape Crisis.
Anderson's annual salary will be $92,515, an increase from the $76,041 she is now paid, a department spokesman said. Jones has an annual salary of $113,904.
Metro on 07/30/2014