TRENTON — New Jersey's child welfare agency has a new leader. Gov. Chris Christie swore in Allison Blake as commissioner of the Children and Families Department today. Blake was director of the Institute for Families at the Rutgers School of Social Work and previously spent 18 years at the Division of Youth and Family Services. Christie nominated Blake nearly...
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in this February 2010 photo.TRENTON — New Jersey's child welfare agency has a new leader.
Gov. Chris Christie swore in Allison Blake as commissioner of the Children and Families Department today.
Blake was director of the Institute for Families at the Rutgers School of Social Work and previously spent 18 years at the Division of Youth and Family Services.
Christie nominated Blake nearly a month after Janet Rosenzweig withdrew her name. Rosenzweig had been criticized by conservatives for her work with the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.
Blake takes over a department that's being overseen by a federal monitor.
The agency has undergone major reforms as a result of a legal settlement with an advocacy group that claimed the state was not properly protecting the children under its care.
Previous coverage:
• N.J. Senate panel approves Gov. Christie's choice to run Department of Children, Families
• Gov. Christie nominates Rutgers professor to lead N.J. Department of Children and Families
• N.J. Gov. Chris Christie's nominee for Department of Children and Families withdraws
• N.J. Senate committee confirms Janet Rosenzweig as head of Department of Children and Families
• Full Star-Ledger coverage of the N.J. Governor-elect Chris Christie transition
