Richard Whitley named interim director of the Health and Human Services Department

Richard Whitley has been named interim director of the Health and Human Services Department replacing Romaine Gilliland.

Whitley was administrator of the Health Division and became its chief after it was reorganized during the 2013 Legislature into the Division of Public and Behavioral Health Administration.

Gilliland was named director in June after longtime HHS Director Mike Willden was appointed Chief of Staff to Gov. Brian Sandoval. According to the release issued by the governor’s office, he came out of a brief retirement from the position of administrator of Welfare and Supportive Services to take the director’s post.

and is now returning to retirement.

He was head of Welfare and Supportive Services from December 2008 until retiring in 2014.

Whitley has been in state service since he was hired as a senior psychologist at the Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility in 1986.

Sandoval thanked Gilliland for his public service saying he “selflessly left retirement and temporarily took the helm of DHHS last June during a time of transition.”