From:
Danielle L. Kirby, Director
Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery
SUPR Executive Staff Announcement
As a part of the ongoing commitment to building the strongest and most diverse team to power a system that provides services, programs, benefits and opportunities for all to thrive, I have an important Executive Staff announcement.
David T. Jones will be joining IDHS as Director of the Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery (SUPR) on October 19th. Director Dani Kirby, who has worked for SUPR since 2003, and has served as Director since 2018, will continue to serve IDHS/SUPR as Chief of Staff. David and Dani have already been collaborating to ensure a seamless, successful transition. Together, they will write the next chapter for substance use services in Illinois and accelerate the Division's mission: to provide a system of care along the continuum of prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support where individuals with substance use disorder, those in recovery and those at risk are valued and treated with dignity and where stigma, accompanying attitudes, discrimination, disparities and other barriers to recovery are eliminated.
David T. Jones has served as the Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) for the City of Philadelphia, a city with more than 1.5 million residents, since 2017. Prior to that, he was Deputy Commissioner at DBHIDS, beginning in 2013. Prior to his time in Philadelphia, Jones was Chief of Behavioral Health and Crisis Services for the Montgomery County (Md.) Department of Health and Human Services. There, he administered a wide range of diverse programs addressing child and adult mental health, substance use disorder, crisis centers, victim's assistance and consumer services. As a behavioral health administrator for more than 25 years, David has developed in-depth knowledge of state and federal regulations, including Medicaid managed care and mental health rehabilitation standards. He has managed urban and suburban public behavioral health systems challenged to increase access to care and expand the range of services available to residents with behavioral health care needs.
Additionally, he has national experience developing multi-disciplinary coalitions to affect sustainable community-level change. David earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Science in Community School/Clinical Child Psychology from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.
Dani Kirby has worked at IDHS/SUPR since 2003, previously as Deputy Director of Planning, Performance Assessment and Federal Projects. Her earlier responsibilities at SUPR included administering federally funded treatment and infrastructure improvement grants, as well as the Illinois Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant. She directed the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Project, driving expansion of SBIRT services within Illinois federally qualified health centers and working to integrate substance use disorder services with primary care. In her time as Director, Dani has focused on Illinois' response to the opioid epidemic, promoting a recovery-oriented system of care and innovating the state's approach to increasing access to services. She is a certified Project Management Professional who earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Carroll College, a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health and a Master of Education in Secondary Education from Northwestern University.
