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Regional Administrator, Region IV (Atlanta)
Carlis V. Williams serves as the Southeast Regional Administrator for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Southeast Region includes eight states: Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Mississippi and Florida. She leads a staff of 106, and oversees an annual budget of over six billion dollars. She is responsible for ACF human service programs that include Head Start, Child Welfare, Foster Care, Adoption, Child Care, Developmental Disabilities, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Child Support, and Runaway and Homeless Youth.
Before assuming her present position, Carlis was the Executive Assistant to the Governor for Human Services in the State of Indiana. She was the Governor's chief policy advisor in these areas and had responsibility for four major agencies: Family and Social Services Administration, the Governor's Council on Disabilities, the Governor's Council on Protection and Advocacy and the Governor's Council on Sports and Fitness. She was instrumental in launching Indiana's nationally recognized Children's Health Insurance Program, Hoosier Healthwise, which enrolled over 120,000 children in it's first year. She was also the catalyst for major changes in the areas of early childhood development, adoption, fatherhood and support for low income working families in the state of Indiana.
Previously, Carlis served as Deputy Director for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Division of Family and Children, and was responsible for programs related to family resources: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Food Stamps, Medicaid, JOBS, Housing and Community Services. She also had lead responsibility for the design and implementation of welfare reform in the state.
Carlis has worked in the community for many years as a volunteer in the areas of education and mental health. She has been on numerous boards and committees that focus on issues surrounding race relations, parenting, education, economic development, community involvement and many others. She has experience in the private sector as a consultant in marketing and telecommunications. She has also been in private practice as a counselor/therapist in areas related to personal growth and positive functioning.
Carlis is a graduate of Ball State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree
in Psychology and Master of Art Degrees in Social Psychology and Counseling and
Guidance. She is a mother and grandmother and loves reading, music and the theater.
If asked her philosophy of life, she will say, "Giving is better than receiving…
If we all give, everyone wins!"