Interim head of agency to leave

Family and Children Services leader in job less than 9 months.

After less than nine months int he position, the interim director for the state’s Division of Family and Children Services announced her resignation Tuesday.

Virginia Pryor, whom Gov. Nathan Deal appointed to replace former Director Bobby Cagle in November, said i na letter to staff announcing her resignation that her last day with the agency will be July 27.

Pryor said she will be going to work for Casey Family Programs, a nonprofit that focuses on foster care and child welfare, in its Los Angeles field office.

She said she will be working with Cagle, who left the agency last year to lead the Los Angeles County Departmen to f Children and Family Services. Pryor previously served as Cagle’s chief of staff.

A Seattle native, Pryor joined DFCS four years ago. In her letter, she said she never planned to stay, “but only to plant the seed for change.”

The departure comes less than a week after news broke of a woman suing the agency for its failure to handle claims of the abuse of her 10-yearold autistic grandson, Kentae Williams. Police have charged Kentae’s adoptive father, Leon Williams, with murder in Kentae’s drowning death last year.

Kentae’s grandmother, Antoinette Tuff, is suing the DeKalb County DFCS office and the Department of Human Services.

In her letter, Pryor said her chief of staff, Jeff Lukich, will lead the executive leadership team at the division until Deal appoints a new interim director.