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LSI appoints director of integrated child and family services
Des Moines, Iowa – Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI) recently promoted Dennis Smithe to LSI’s director of integrated child and family services. Smithe previously served as LSI’s residential continuous quality improvement coordinator.
As director, Smithe will oversee LSI’s work as a selected provider for the Iowa Department of Human Services for safety and permanency services in the Waterloo and Dubuque regions. Through safety and permanency services, LSI can respond to a crisis in a family’s home to ensure the child’s safety or work to provide stability within families through a variety of services.
Smithe will also help oversee LSI’s work as a partner agency in Iowa KidsNet, the statewide collaboration that recruits Iowa’s foster and adoptive parents, in the Waterloo and Dubuque regions.
“Dennis will be a driving force in LSI’s efforts to integrate all of our work in child welfare,” said Doug Johnson, LSI president and CEO. “His excellent skills, wisdom and almost two decades of child welfare experience will be a terrific asset to LSI.”
Smithe’s background in helping at-risk children and families includes experience in program administration and supervision, quality assurance, residential and family therapy, mental health counseling, substance abuse and dispute mediation.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to help lead the critical work that shapes a better future for children in Iowa,” said Smithe.
Smithe has a master’s degree in mental health counseling from the University of Northern Iowa and has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Northwest Iowa Community College, Hawkeye Community College and Wartburg College.
LSI impacts the lives of tens of thousands of Iowans annually through residential treatment, services to families, home health care, early childhood programs, adoption/foster care services, refugee resettlement, services for people with disabilities, disaster response initiatives and Barnabas Uplift. LSI serves people of all ages, genders, nationalities, religions, ethnicities and sexual orientations and is affiliated with Lutheran Services in America and three Iowa synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. To learn more, visit www.lsiowa.org.
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