Sonoma County has named Tina Rivera as the new director of the Department of Health Services.

Rivera has worked for the county since 2018 and has served as interim director of the department for the past nine months, a spokesperson for the county said.

Rivera joined the Department of Health Services in January 2020 as assistant director and also served as assistant director of the Community Development Commission at the same time, where she assisted with housing and programs for the homeless. From 2018 to 2020, Rivera was administrative services director for the county’s Department of Human Services, overseeing its finance and operations unit.

Prior to 2018, Rivera served as northwest region chief financial officer and administrative services director for the State of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. She also served as federal grants administrator for the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, and executive director at Compassion Center, a nonprofit where she developed and implemented programs to provide housing and behavioral health services for vulnerable populations.

In her new role, Rivera will oversee more than 580 employees and a budget of $330 million, a spokesperson for the county said.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.