Appointments Announced!

January 05, 2026

The office of the Governor Elect announced the following this morning:

Daryl Washington, Commissioner of DBHDS
Daryl has been Executive Director of Fairfax-Falls Church CSB since May 2018 and came to that position with a long history with the CSB (beginning in 1996) in a variety of clinical and program positions, rising up through the ranks and becoming Acting Director in January 2018.  He is a licensed clinical Social Worker with a degree from UNC.  

The advantage to an appointment of a person with this background is that he brings a substantial knowledge of the Virginia system and understanding of the challenges.   Congratulations to Daryl.

Alyssa Ward, Deputy Commissioner of DBHDS
Dr. Ward is well know to many of our members as the former Director for Behavioral Haelth at DMAS (during the BRAVO project) and more recently at ANTHEM in the Behavioral Health Division.  She has significant clinical experience and, also, a deep knowledge of the “system.”  We will need to bring her up to speed on the specific issues with DD Services, but she also will be able to rely on Heather Norton whose position, as far as we know, remains unchanged.

The DMAS appointments have not yet been announced.