Kristi Putnam steps down as Arkansas DHS secretary
Arkansas Department of Human Services Sec. Kristi Putnam discusses the state's waiver request for Medicaid work requirements on Jan. 28, 2025 as State Medicaid Director Janet Mann (left) and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders listen. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
Arkansas State Medicaid Director Janet Mann will become secretary of the Department of Human Services next month as Secretary Kristi Putnam returns to Kentucky, the governor's office announced Wednesday.
Mann serves as DHS' deputy secretary of programs as well as medicaid director. She has over 20 years of experience in healthcare and healthcare finance and previously served as chief financial officer and director of the division of medical services for the department.
Putnam was deputy secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders picked her to lead Arkansas' Human Services Department in 2023.
'Over the past two-and-a-half years, Kristi has overhauled the Department of Human Services and brought much-needed reforms to the programs her agency oversees, including foster care, Medicaid, maternal health, food stamps, and more,' Sanders said in the press release announcing Putnam's departure and Mann's promotion.
'I am grateful that we have someone as qualified as Janet to take over for Kristi and seamlessly continue to make positive changes at DHS,' Sanders said. 'Janet has an encyclopedic knowledge of her agency and I know she is the exact right person to lead DHS into the future.'
Sanders said Putnam will be returning to Kentucky. Putnam said her 'whole career has focused on serving families, and this move back to Kentucky is so I can serve my own family in a bigger way,' according to the release.
Putnam described Mann as 'the absolute right person to step up as secretary.' The incoming secretary 'is one of the most creative policy experts I have ever known, and will take DHS to new levels of success,' Putnam said.
Mann said she is honored that Sanders selected her and is looking forward 'to continue the great work Kristi and I have been able to accomplish in this administration.'
As DHS deputy secretary of programs, Mann oversees the department's divisions of aging, substance abuse and mental health, developmental disabilities, provider services and quality assurance, eligibility, child welfare and youth services, as well as Medicaid. The department is the state's largest agency with a total budget of about $11 billion, and its programs serve approximately 1 in 3 Arkansans.
Mann's background includes a stint as the deputy administrator for Mississippi Medicaid and as a consultant to several states' Medicaid agencies on finance, reporting, managed care, program integrity, organizational assessments and eligibility, according to the press release. She holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Alabama and is a Certified Public Accountant.
The governor's press release said she, Putnam and Mann have worked closely together 'to deliver transformational change to the people of Arkansas.' It cited Arkansas' 'welfare to work requirement,' changes initiated by the Governor's Maternal Health Strategic Committee to support pregnant people and a foster care and adoption initiative that has reduced the number of children in foster care.
The release also cited the state's first-in-the-nation law preventing pharmacy benefit managers from operating drug stores in Arkansas and the newly approved ban on the use of SNAP benefits for soft drinks and candy.
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