A search team of the Lucas County Children Services board has narrowed the list of candidates for a new executive director to three finalists.
The Children Services board last week scheduled a special board meeting for June 24 to hold interviews with each applicant. A search began in January for a director to replace executive director Dean Sparks, who is retiring Aug. 30.
The finalists are:
● Jeffery Felton, program administrator for Huron County Children Services in Norwalk, Ohio.
● Beth Meeks, executive director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence and former executive director of a domestic violence shelter in Findlay, Ohio.
● Pravin Patel, a manager for Children and Family Services of San Mateo County in California.
The three candidates were among 11 applicants who submitted resumes and met the minimum qualifications for the position. The finalists were selected by five members of the Children Services board after phone interviews.
Each applicant will appear before the Children Services board on June 24 for interviews. The meeting will be open to the public. No decision will be made that day.
They will stay in Toledo overnight and will attend an event June 25 in the morning with invited stakeholders of the community, including representatives of Lucas County Juvenile Court, the county commissioners, foster parents organization, Child Abuse Prevention Center, and Family Council.
A meeting is planned for later on June 25 with Children Services’ employees and staff, and possibly others. A time and place has not been set.
Laura Wilson, Children Services board chairman, said the board hopes to hire the new director July 8.
“The plan is to make a final decision on that date and to move to put together a contract to whoever the candidate we may select,” she said.
Mr. Patel, 61, said he has more than 30 years of experience in child welfare services agencies in California. He worked in San Diego before joining San Mateo, where he is a senior manager.
Mr. Patel, a native of India, has master’s degrees in social work from a university in India and San Jose State. He said his travels to the Midwest, including Michigan and Ohio, for review agencies for accreditation purposes is among the reasons he is interested in the position.
“I like learning something new. I grew up in a family where learning is a lifelong process,” he said.
Ms. Meeks was executive director of Open Arms Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services in Findlay for 13 years.
She left the nonprofit group in 2009 to join the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a statewide nonprofit that provides advocacy, education, allocation of funds, and technical assistance to 16 domestic violence programs in local communities.
According to the group’s website, she has a master’s degree in forensic psychology.
Mr. Felton has been the program administrator for Children Services, a department of Huron County’s Jobs and Family Services, since 2012.
Jill Nolan, director of Jobs and Family Services, said Mr. Felton has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from West Virginia University and a master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina.
Ms. Meeks and Mr. Felton could not be reached for comment.
Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 419-724-6199.